Fall of Our Kind
by moemon-master
Summary: Follow Josh and his dragon, Blugun as they go on another journey with their friends. Sequel to Dragonling. Rated M for violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello and welcome to the sequel to **_**Dragonling. **_**Sorry about taking so long to get this book started but I was having some family troubles involving my little brother, Nicholas. Sadly, he shall be staying with me for a while so I don't know how often I'm going to be able to update this story without him snooping on my computer. I'm going to continue to try and update every Saturday, just like I did with **_**Dragonling.**_** I hope that you will all enjoy this book as much as you enjoyed the first book. Without further ado, I present to you **_**The Fall of Our Kind.**_

**I own nothing except for the characters I have created.**

It had been several days since Septimus had shown me the book. I was originally supposed to return to Vroengard the day after I arrived at my village but Septimus had talked to Eragon and they both had decided that it would be best for us to remain at the village for a while longer.

I was currently at my own house, relaxing in my bed and thinking about all that Septimus had told me.

The kind that had fallen, it was an ancient race of dragons, ones that could control the magic that coursed through them. The dragons had made themselves their own society complete with peasants, commoners, nobles, and a royal family. And then there were the ones that were even lower than the dragons, the ones that were banished from the dragon kind.

These dragons, called the Banished, had a magic spell cast on them that made them lose not only their magic, but also their wings, scales, and their tail. The spell made the dragons turn into something that resembled a human, but they were always bald, had their eyes on the sides of their heads and walked hunched over. The Banished were considered the lowest of the low, lower than dirt.

For a dragon to become one of the Banished, they must commit some horrible crime. Because of this, there was barely any crime in the ancient society. That was why nobody was prepared when the Banished all attacked the city.

The dragons had no time to prepare for the battle and so they were soon overrun and then royal family ran to their hiding place, a small forest hidden in the center of a labyrinth. That was where the queen of the dragons laid her last clutch of dragons. That was also where she was killed, as well as the king and all of their personal guard.

The queen's dead body had covered her last three eggs from the Banished and so they lived which means that Amethi is royalty as well as Zaptho and Glacia. Amethi had been stunned when Septimus had told her this.

After Amethi had been told this she had said to us that she needed to be alone for a while and then she had flown away and wasn't seen for the rest of the day. She had returned the next morning looking like she had flown all night long.

I was snapped out of my memories as Zaptho yawned beside me, blasting me with his reptilian morning breath. I coughed as I tried to get away from the horrible stench. Once I was done choking on his breath and had gotten some clean air into my lungs, I beckoned for the little dragon to follow me. he flapped his little wings and flew over to me and landed on my shoulder, digging his small but sharp claws into my shoulder.

Zaptho and I left my bedroom and walked through the small house. As I walked, memories flowed through me as I looked around my old home. Being away for so long had really made me home sick and it felt good to once more be home.

I gazed down at the wooden floor and saw the claw marks that still covered the floor from the first time Blugun had been in the house. The little newly hatched dragon had been very excited and had run all over the place, scratching the wooden floor very bad. It had taken me about two hours to smooth down the floors where Blugun's claws had scratched it and brought up little splinters.

I followed the sound of something bubbling and found my mom leaning over the pot that was hung over the cooking fire.

The short blond woman smiled at me when she saw me. Mom set the wooden spoon she was using down and then wiped her hands on her apron and she came over to me.

"I still can't quite get over how big you've gotten." Mom said as she rested her small hands on my broad shoulders. "You've really grown into a young man."

"Thanks Mother. It is great to be back home again." I said to her.

Mom sighed and said "I wish Blugun was here."

I nodded and said to her "Me too. He really wanted to be here to see you and Septimus again."

"It is sad that he couldn't be here but it sure was nice to meet Amethi and Zaptho." Mom said as she rubbed Zaptho on his chin. Zaptho let out a little sound that kinda sounded like a cat and then he rubbed his head against my mother's hand.

"He really likes you." I said to Mom as she continued to pet the little dragon. Mom smiled and then patted Zaptho a few times and then she returned to her cooking. "What are you cooking? It smells great."

"It's just a simple beef and veggie stew." My mom said as she threw a handful of cut up carrots in the pot.

"Need any help?" I asked her.

Mom nodded and said to me "Could you get me the salt and pepper from the spice cupboard?"

"Sure." I said to her as I went over to the small cupboard. I opened it and grabbed the jars that were filled with salt and pepper. I handed the jars to my mom and she thanked me. Then she opened the jars and poured some of the spices into the pot; then she closed the jars and handed them back to me. I put the jars back into the cupboard and asked my mom "Is there anything else you need help with?"

"I need some more wood. Could you please go and chop some?" my mom said to me.

I nodded and then went outside of the building and into the backyard. I grabbed the axe from the tool shed and then went over to the chopping block that had several large logs near it. Zaptho jumped off of my shoulder and then I started to chop up the logs while Zaptho sharpened his claws on one of the logs.

As I chopped the tenth log, I heard some flapping sound come from off to my left and then I looked over there and saw a large purple dragon rise into the air from the direction of Septimus' hut. Amethi flew over to me and once she was closer I connected my mind with hers.

I continued my chopping and waited while Amethi got closer. It wasn't long before Amethi landed in the yard.

_Good morning, Amethi. Did you sleep well? _I asked Amethi through our mental link.

Amethi nodded her large head and said to me _Yes, I did. How about you and Zaptho?_

_We slept pretty well. Zaptho has got some terrible morning breath._ I said to Amethi with a laugh. Amethi laughed with me. Zaptho went over to Amethi and Amethi bent her head down and nuzzled the small dragon. The little topaz colored dragon squealed with delight as he was nuzzled by his big sister.

I finished chopping the wood while Amethi played with her brother. I took some of the chopped wood into the house and then I stacked the rest next to the house. I put the axe back inside the tool shed. I sat down as I watched the two dragon siblings play together.

I felt something push me off of the stump and towards the two dragons. I looked back and saw that it was Amethi's tail. Amethi pushed me closer to her and her brother and I understood what she wanted. She wanted me to play with her and her brother.

I joined in their fun and we chased each other around, with me constantly losing. Zaptho was a fast little dragon and he had no problems catching up to me. All Amethi had to do to get me was swing her tail.

"Josh, the food's done." My mom called out to me. I looked over to the house and Zaptho took advantage of the distraction. He jumped up on my back, pushing me off balance and making me fall to the ground.

Zaptho jumped off of me and I rolled over. Zaptho jumped back on me and then started to bounce on my chest. "Alright Zaptho, you win!" I said to the little dragon as I laughed. Zaptho jumped off of me and ran over to his sister and started to climb on her. "I'll be right back." I said to the dragons. "I'm going to eat then I'll come back out."

_Okay._ Amethi said to me as she watched Zaptho jump off of her shoulder and glide through the air.

I went into the house and then into the kitchen. I grabbed a wooden bowl from the cupboard and then scooped some of the stew into the bowl. I then grabbed a spoon and went to the table and sat down across from my mom. We ate our food while I told her about all the stuff I was learning from Vroengard.

Once we were done eating I went back outside and continued to play with Amethi and Zaptho. We played for several more hours, during which we played tag, played around in the small forest that was nearby, and flew around for a while Zaptho practiced his flying.

Once we were all done playing, we went for a quick dip in the pond that was near the edge of the forest. Once we were done swimming we went back to my house and then the three of us relaxed on the grass and let the sun dry us off.

My relaxation was ended when my mother called me into the house for lunch. While I went inside for food, Amethi and Zaptho went back to the forest and hunted for their food.

Once I was done eating I went outside and sent my mind out to find Amethi and Zaptho. I found them in the forest and then started walking. It didn't take me long to find the two dragons and when I found them a very gory sight met my eyes. A bear was lying on the ground with its stomach cut open and large cuts going all over the large brown animal. I looked around and saw that the ground was torn up and off to my right there was a large group of trees that were destroyed. Near the remains of the trees was Amethi.

Amethi was curled around something and when I got near her she growled at me. She raised her head and once she noticed who I was she uncurled around the object and let me near it. What she was protecting was a badly wounded Zaptho.

He had a gash running down his left side and he also had several smaller cuts running along his side. His right wing was laid out at an awkward angle and it had several small cuts all over it. I could see what looked like a bite wound on his back, as if the bear had tried to bite into Zaptho. Zaptho's breathing was ragged. I knelt down next to the small dying dragon and quickly started healing him with magic. I had left my ring back at the house and so when I ran out of energy I started using the energy from the trees around me.

The number of trees that had to die in order for Zaptho to live was six. By the end of the healing session Zaptho was breathing deeply and had all of his cuts healed up. Zaptho yawned weakly and then he rubbed his head against me.

I picked the little topaz dragon up and cradled him in my arms.

_Hop on. _Amethi said to me as she crouched down. I nodded and then climbed up and onto her back. Amethi shot up into the air and we were soaring over the forest and then over the village. It wasn't long before we reached Septimus' cottage.

I jumped off and before I could take another step towards the wooden house Septimus came out and hurried over to us, his blond hair flying behind him and he jogged over to us.

Septimus took Zaptho and then he went inside his hut with me following him. Septimus used magic to look at Zaptho's inner organs for any kind of injury. There was a small cut on his right lung and it was causing internal bleeding. Septimus first healed the cut and then he cleared Zaptho of the blood.

"That should do it. All Zaptho needs now is rest." Septimus said to me as I held Zaptho close to me.

"Thanks, Ebrithil." I said to Septimus. I carried Zaptho outside and then showed Amethi that he was better now. "Septimus says that Zaptho just needs some sleep then he will be perfectly fine." Amethi smiled and I felt relief pour out Amethi's mind.

Amethi licked Zaptho's cheek and then she nuzzled him and did the dragon equivalent of a purr. I laid Zaptho down on the ground and then Amethi curled around her baby brother.

_Will you please tell me what happened?_ I asked Amethi.

Amethi looked up to me and then I felt a rush of images and sounds and then I saw Amethi's memory of what had happened through her eyes.

_I was stalking a deer and Zaptho was playing quietly nearby. I was about to pounce on the deer, my muscles all prepped for the jump, the second before I pounced I heard Zaptho cry out. I jerked my head that way and with my mind I felt a large animal advancing on Zaptho._

_I jumped towards the sound, the deer forgotten. I couldn't get to Zaptho, the trees were to tight. I started to tear at the trees with my claws, tearing them apart and making a large opening for me to go through. As soon as the opening was large enough for me I jumped through and attacked the large brown animal that had Zaptho in his mouth._

_The bear dropped Zaptho once it saw me and then it tried to run away but there was no way that I was going to let the animal escape. I grabbed its flanks and sunk my claws into the bear and then I pulled it closer. I pulled out my left paw and then I started tearing into the animal. The bear fell to its knees and then I started attacking its other side._

_Once it had covered its body in cuts, I then sliced open its stomach, letting the intestines and all the other internal organs spill out onto the grass and dirt, staining the ground red with the blood._

_I then went over to Zaptho and tried to heal him, but I had no success. I then curled around my brother and tried to comfort him while he died. Then I heard someone approaching from behind and I growled at the unknown enemy until I saw it was Josh._

The memory stopped there and I went back into my own mind. I stroked Amethi's cheek and hugged her. _You did a very good job protecting Zaptho. I'm very proud of you._

Again Amethi did her equivalent of a purr. I felt the happiness in her mind as well as the waves of feeling washed out of her.

"So, will you tell me what happened?" Septimus asked me.

I looked over to my mentor and nodded. Then I told him what Amethi had shown me. Septimus nodded grimly and then he said to me "There has been a bit of a bear problem recently. Although several of the people from town are profiting from the bears. They are killing them and then skinning them. Then they sell the skin. Bear skin is worth a surprising amount of gold."

Septimus sighed and then he said to me "I think it would be best for you and Amethi to take Zaptho and return to Vroengard. Zaptho will be safe there, unlike here."

No matter how much I didn't want to leave, I knew I had to. Besides, I had to return to Blugun. I was really missing him. "Very well, Ebrithil. When shall we leave?" I asked Septimus.

"As soon as you can." Septimus said to me. "Get your bags packed, get your supplies ready and then get Amethi saddled then return here." Septimus said to me then he went inside his home.

Amethi crouched down and after I picked up Zaptho I climbed up and into the dip between her neck and shoulders. Amethi jumped off of the small cliff and then she flew the short distance to my home. Amethi landed in the yard and then I went inside.

I told my mom about what had happened and how Septimus had said that it would be best if we returned to Vroengard a day ahead of schedule. While I talked I got my stuff packed, grabbed the items I had forgotten the first time I had left and my mom got together some food and put it into a sack with a drawstring.

I put my armor on as well as my sword and then I picked up Amethi's saddle and took it outside; then I returned inside and then went back outside, this time carrying my clothes in their bags and the bag of food my mother had given me.

I picked up the saddle and then strapped it onto Amethi. Then I strapped down my bags and then I turned around and hugged my mother.

"Farewell, Mother. Hopefully I will see you soon." I said to her.

"Farewell, Josh. Please be good on Vroengard." Mom said to me.

I smiled at her and then I said "Don't worry Mom, I will." I kissed her on her cheek and then I got into the saddle and Amethi took off and not to long later landed back on the cliff with Septimus' hut on it.

Septimus was leaning against his hut when we landed. He held two objects, one large and the other of medium sized; both were wrapped in a white cloth. I went over to him and bowed.

He bowed back and then said to me "Josh, I have something for you." Then he handed me the medium sized object. I unwrapped it and saw that beneath the cloth lay a dagger. The silver pommel held a dark sapphire with an amethyst in the center of it. The hilt was made of black wood and the cross-guard was made of silver metal as well. The scabbard was of black wood with dark blue and purple fading in through the wood. I drew the dagger out of the scabbard and saw that the blade was black as night, single edged and curved like a dragon tooth, and it was also iridescent like the scabbard. If I tilted the single edged dagger one way then the blade appeared dark blue, if I tilted it the other way then it turned a dark purple. If I looked at it straight on then it was a solid black.

I sheathed the dagger and then bowed again. "Thank you very much for this gift. I shall treasure it forever."

"You're welcome, Apprentice." Septimus said with a smile. I slipped the dagger on to my belt on my right hip while Septimus continued to talk. "The second thing I hold is for Eragon. Be sure that it gets to him safe."

I nodded and then Septimus handed me the second package. "If you don't mind me asking, what is it?"

Septimus chuckled and then he said "Always so curious. You really must watch where your curiosity will take you. It is one of your greatest gifts as well as one of your greatest curses. It shall help you to seek knowledge, but be careful of what knowledge you seek." Septimus chuckled again and then he bent down closer to me and said "The thing you carry is the translation of the book, _the Fall of our Kind. _Treat it well."

I nodded to him and said "Thank you, Ebrithil for all you have done. We shall be leaving now."

Septimus nodded and said to us "Good luck on your journey back home. May the wind be ever in your favor."

I stood next to Amethi and then the both of us bowed to Septimus. Zaptho almost fell off of Amethi's back but Amethi straightened in time for him to not fall.

I climbed up on Amethi and then I moved Zaptho into my lap. I then put the translation away inside my most secure bag. As Amethi took off from the cliff I waved my hand at my old teacher. Amethi passed over my home and I waved at my mother who was still in the yard.

Amethi flew until night fall, putting some pretty good distance between us and the village. We ate then we rested. We were then up early, ate a small breakfast and we set off again. Amethi flew all through the day, pausing only so we could relieve ourselves.

By the end of the day we were halfway to Vroengard. Once we stopped for the night Amethi and I went out hunting for food for dinner and for breakfast in the morning. Once we were satisfied with what we had we returned to where I had set up camp. Once I was done cooking up my dinner, eating my dinner and then fixing up my meat so it could last a while, I went out into the trees and started to channel some energy into my ring. Again I didn't kill any of the plants or trees, I just took enough for the trees to continue living. Once I was done gathering energy I left the trees and went back to my campsite and then I quickly fell asleep.

We set off early the next morning and we reached the sea at the end of the day. I made a pool of water and then I contacted Eragon using the pool. I asked him if it was alright to return and he said that it was. I was about to tell him about what had happened but he stopped me saying that Septimus had already informed him of what had happened.

I nodded and then we exchanged a few more words and then I cancelled the spell. I then returned to my bed-roll and quickly fell asleep.

In the morning all three of us were excited to be returning to Vroengard. Amethi flew quickly over the water and around mid-day Vroengard came into view. Amethi flew even faster, excited to once more see her home.

It wasn't long before Amethi was landing. Blugun was waiting near the landing area, as were Mando, Claire, Wendur and Luna. In the distance I could see another person coming towards us.

I jumped off of Amethi and ran over to Blugun. I embraced the large dark blue dragon and he rubbed his large paw on my back. I happily connected minds with him and then I quickly told him all that had happened while I had been away and then he told me all that had happened.

_Nothing much has happened here, Josh. _Blugun said to me. _A few fights between some young wild dragons, only minor injuries, a few of the other dragons and I had a race and I won although this little green dragon was pretty fast, but she still hasn't learned how to fly over changing air currents. It was very fun to race them, and it was even funnier to watch the little green dragon getting knocked around by the gusts of wind. _Blugun said with a chuckle.

_Something very exciting is going to happen._ Blugun said to me. _Very soon my mating season will begin. Although in order for a dragon bonded with a rider, the dragon must first consult their rider before signing up for the breeding program. May I please join?_

_You wish to be a father? _ I asked him. Blugun vigorously nodded his large head. _That is great to hear! Of course you may join! When does the mating season begin?_

_It begins next week and the final registration time is in three days. _Blugun said to me.

_Where do we have to go to get you signed up? _I asked him.

_It is on the far side of the island, where only dragons are allowed. There are supposed to be a large number of caves there. The ground there is heated by the lava that flows beneath the ground. It is the perfect place for dragons to lay their eggs._

_Sounds great. How long will you be gone for the breeding season?_

_I will be gone every day during the first week, and then I will be gone every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On those days I must hunt for my mate and bring her food. All the females that get pregnant must stay in the caves, they must stay where it is warm so that the egg can develop._

_Do you get to pick out your mate or do you just get together and pick randomly?_ I asked Blugun.

_We can pick our mate, and if we do not have a mate we want in particular then we do as you said, pick randomly. Remember Josh, dragons do not mate for life._

Before I could say anything I felt someone tap me on my shoulder and I turned around and saw Eragon. I instantly dropped down and kneeled.

"Rise Josh." Eragon said to me. I stood up and then Eragon said to me "It is good to see you again. How was everything back at your village?"

"Very nice, Ebrithil." I said to Eragon. I then remembered the translations that Septimus had given me and then I went over to my saddle bags that were still strapped down on Amethi. I quickly unbuckled Amethi from the saddle and while Amethi shook herself like a dog trying to rid itself of water, I grabbed the translations from my bag and handed them to Eragon. "A gift from Septimus. They are very special and require your immediate attention." I said to Eragon.

Eragon nodded and then he said to me "Thank you, Josh." Then he turned to Amethi and said to her "Thank you, Amethi. You two have done me a great service and I am in your debt."

"Non-sense." I said to Eragon. "You owe us nothing. You have allowed us to stay and train here on Vroengard. You have given us a lot and it was the least we could do."

Eragon smiled and then he nodded at me and walked away with the translations tucked underneath his arm and with Zaptho following him like an obedient dog.

I went over to my teammates and embraced them. "Ah it is very good to see the both of you once more." I said to them. "How have you been while I've been gone?"

"I've been good." Mando said to me. A breeze blew his silver hair over his elven face and then he flipped the hair out of the way.

"Same here." Claire said to me. "What about you? How have you been?"

"I've been good. The trip was long and boring, well except for the first and last day that I was in my village; those days were pretty eventful." I said to Claire and Manny. They gave me a weird look then I said "I'll explain it to you later."

Then I looked up at Luna, Claire's silver dragon. I connected with her mind and asked her _How have you been, Luna?_

_I've been very good, Josh. I have signed up in the mating program and so has Wendur. Shall Blugun be joining us as well?_

I nodded and said to her _Yeah, he will be there. Have you got a dragon that you specifically want to mate with?_

Luna nodded once and then she said to me _He is a red dragon that helps me train. He is strong and we shall have powerful dragonlings together._

_That is very good to hear. I'm happy for you._ I said to her.

_Thank you._ Luna said to me.

I left her mind and then connected with Wendur's. _Hey Wendur, how have things been?_

_They've been very good. I have three females that want me to be their mate this season. It is possible to be all three of their mate but it will be exhausting. I will have to be running from cave to cave and do three times the hunting so I think I shall only have one mate this year. Although Blugun is having much more troubles than I am._

_The females all love him and countless want him as a mate. I suggest you talk to him about it because he wouldn't say anything about which one he was going to pick. I think he might need some help._ Wendur stopped talking and then he looked up and above my head. _Never mind, I think he has everything figured out._

I turned around and saw that Blugun and Amethi were staring at each other. From my connection with Blugun I could see that they were communicating but I couldn't figure out what they were saying. But, I could easily see what they were centering their conversation on. Their tails were intertwining as they spoke to each other and both of them were smiling and slowly their snouts were getting closer to each other.

The two dragons touched noses, the dragon's way of kissing. _Yep, he sure does have it all figured out._ I thought to myself.

The day passed by slowly and by the end of the day Blugun was registered in the mating program, he was assigned a cave and his mate was Amethi. The both of them slept in my room that night. They were practically inseparable. All through the week they spent as much time together as they could, and I was happy that they were both happy.

It wasn't long before I was starting my classes and working on all the stuff that I had missed while I was gone. The first week without our dragons was very quiet, except for the occasional roar that could be heard from the mating grounds.

At the end of the week all of the male dragons returned as well as about five of the unlucky females who hadn't gotten pregnant. Just as Blugun had said, he was gone Mondays, Wednesday s, and Fridays. Every time Blugun returned he brought news of Amethi and Luna. Both were doing fine and it looked like both were carrying a large amount of eggs. Wendur said that his mate was carrying a large amount of eggs as well. It was going to be a bountiful mating season.

For the rest of the month this continued, then the dragons started laying their eggs and again the males left, that way they could watch over and protect their mates as they gave birth. Apparently there was sometimes an egg thief that went around stealing eggs while the mothers gave birth.

The sound of the dragons laying their eggs filled the air and several of us cringed as we felt the waves of pain with our minds.

Luna laid four eggs, two reds, a silver and a pink. Amethi was one of the last dragons to lay her eggs. She also laid four. One dark blue, one dark purple and the other two were a mix of the two colors creating a beautiful mosaic of color on the eggs. Wendur and his ice blue mate laid three eggs. One green and then rest the same blue as their mother.

Once all the eggs were laid, the parent dragons then decided which of their eggs would be bonded with riders and which would be wild dragons.

Luna and her mate decided that all but the second red egg would be bonded with riders. Blugun and Amethi decided that all of their eggs would have riders. Wendur and his mate decided that their green egg and one of the blue eggs would have a rider.

The females stayed with their eggs for a while so they could recover a little. While the mothers recovered elder riders went from cave to cave and imbued the destined to be rider eggs with the enchantment so that they could hatch for their future rider.

After about a week the mother dragons returned. Their eggs were currently being sent off to either Alagaesia to find a rider or they were being sent to the hatching ground of the wild dragons.

One of Blugun's and Amethi's eggs, one of the mixed color ones, was kept here on Vroengard so that Eragon could see if it would have any connection to the prophesy.

The days slowly turned into a week, and the week slowly turned into several weeks. Lessons were boring but I was getting much better at fighting. Thanks to Blugun and Amethi being mates, I was able to see Amethi a lot more than I previously had. Sometimes the three of us would go flying and just enjoy each other's company.

That's what we were doing one day when I received a message from an Urgal. Eragon wanted to see Amethi and me as soon as we could get there. I hurried to get off of the roof and then I went into my room and bathed with a quick spell then I dried off with another quick spell and got dressed, this time on my own. After I put on my black leather jerkin and my gloves I strapped my sword and dagger on and then I left the room with Amethi flying overhead.

We soon reached Eragon's office and when I went inside I saw little colorful fragments of a dragon egg on the floor with a red-headed girl about my age in a white cloak in the center of the egg shells. I picked up a fragment and looked at the color.

It was Blugun's and Amethi's egg that was kept here for Eragon to examine.

I looked around for Eragon but he wasn't in here. I went over to the girl and knelt beside her. She was a human like me and she had bright blue eyes that were wide with wonder and amazement. As I knelt beside her, she didn't look up. She kept staring at the hatchling in her arms and at the silvery mark that now adorned her right hand. In her arms was a baby dragon, sleeping peacefully. The little dragon was dark blue like Blugun with purple fading in along its spine and with a large purple area of scales on its face that closely resembled a heart as well as purple scales on its chest and running down its abdomen and the bottom of its tail.

I heard Amethi land on the ground outside of the window and then she slid her head in through the window. _I sense something in here. It feels familiar. _Amethi said to me.

_That's because the thing you feel is your child. One of your eggs hatched to the girl over here._ I said to Amethi. Her eyes widened as she looked at the girl.

Amethi slid her head and neck into the room until she could see her baby. Amethi nudged the little dragon and then I saw her smile as she took in the sight of one of her children.

The girl saw Amethi and raised her right hand and then left it out for Amethi to inspect. Amethi rubbed the tip of her snout against her gedwëy ignasia and the girl trembled. I knelt next to the girl again and said to her "Congratulations on becoming a rider. The dragon in your arms is the child of the large purple dragon in front of you. Her name is Amethi."

The girl looked over at me and repeated the name. "Amethi."

"That's right. My name is Josh. What's yours?" I asked her.

Before she could answer the doors opened and Eragon walked in. "Ah, it is good to see that you are getting along." Eragon said to us as he walked towards us. "Amethi, how does it feel to see your child?" Eragon asked her.

_Very good._ Amethi said to him as she continued to touch her baby.

Eragon nodded and then he turned to me and said "Josh, I called you and Amethi here not only so you could see the baby, but also so you could meet this young lady." Eragon came over to us and he helped the red-head up.

"Thanks Uncle Eragon." The girl said to Eragon.

"Josh, Amethi," Eragon said to me. "I would like to introduce you to my niece, Katrina Stronghammer."

**How did you like the first chapter? I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review so I can know what you think about it. Have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here you go everyone, chapter two. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**

"Are you and Anna sisters?" I asked Katrina.

She nodded and said to me "Yeah, I'm her twin sister."

"Cool." I said to her. "So what was it like to have the dragon hatch for you?"

Katrina looked down at the sleeping dragon in her arms. "At first it was scary, but then I was excited. I reached out my hand to touch it and as soon as my hand made contact with it felt like there was fire going through my veins."

"That's how it was for me." I said to her. I took off my right glove and showed Katrina my gedwëy ignasia. She seemed shocked. I looked down and saw that I was showing her my draconian arm. She previously hadn't seen it because I was wearing my jerkin. I smiled at her and then I removed my jerkin, showing Katrina the rest of my arm.

"What happened to your arm?" Katrina asked as she got closer and inspected it.

I held it up for her to see and then I told her "When I first came here, Blugun and I, Blugun is my dragon, we were flying through a terrible storm. While I was looking around for the island Blugun's neck spikes went up and into my arm. Thankfully Blugun was close to the island so as soon as he pulled his spikes out of my arm he flew as fast as he could to the island. One we landed, Blugun used magic on me. the first fire he ever breathed. It washed over my arm I'm guessing that his fire and magic is what changed my arm. I passed out shortly after we landed. I woke up in my room with this arm. It is very handy, it took a while to get used to but I love it."

"Amazing." Katrina said to me. "May I touch it?" she asked me.

"Go ahead." I said to her. Katrina hesitantly lifter her hand to mine. She rubbed her fingers over my own and closely inspected my gedwëy ignasia. Katrina set down her dragon and then she used both hands to start feeling my arm.

When she got to my bicep I could hear her saying "Human muscles with dragon skin and scales. It looks like the bones are also human, to small to be dragon." Katrina lifted up my tunic sleeve on my arm so she could see my shoulder. "The scales fade into the skin. Interesting." Then Katrina blushed and backed away from me and picked up her dragon.

"What's the matter?" asked her, worried that I had somehow frightened her.

She just shook her head and her blush got deeper. I went over to her and rested my left hand on her shoulder. Katrina's eyes flicked up to me face and then back down to her dragon. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Katrina just nodded.

"Josh, Amethi, I have something I wish to discuss with you." I looked over to Eragon and then he said "Katrina, go ahead and go to your room. I will send a rider to your room to explain the duties of a rider to you." Katrina nodded, bowed and then she quickly left.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked Eragon. "She seemed scared."

Eragon chuckled and then he said to me "She wasn't scared, she was embarrassed. Josh, you still have much to learn about young ladies. Once she realized that she was gripping your bicep she became embarrassed and then she backed away, embarrassed."

"How do you know that?" I asked him.

Eragon tapped the side of his head and said to me "Mental connection. I was connected to her mind and still am and for her sake I shall not repeat what she is thinking right now. Although, I will say that she likes you."

Now it was my turn to go a little red in the face; it was a little embarrassing to know a girl's intimate thoughts, even more embarrassing to know that they were about me.

"Can we uh, get off the subject please?" I asked Eragon.

Eragon smirked and then chuckled a little. "Very well then." The he went over to his desk and uttered a small spell. Then he opened a drawer, pulled something out, and then closed it again. Eragon laid a large stack of papers on the top of his desk. "These are the translations of the book that Septimus showed you. Septimus have shown me a very large number of things that are disturbing and the translations have made me realize something."

"What is that?" I asked Eragon.

"They have made me realize that Amethi and you have got to go to where the ancient dragons use to live. I need you two to go to their island and see if you can find anything of importance." Eragon said to me.

"But haven't you already gone there?" I asked Eragon.

Eragon nodded and then he said "Yes, I have but back then I didn't have a hatched member of the royal family." Eragon stood up and then he walked over to Amethi. "Sometimes just the presence of a special kind of person will activate something so I must ask you to go there, Amethi. I also would like for Blugun to accompany you on this mission. You might need all the help you can get so I shall also send Katrina with you. Perhaps she will learn a thing or two about being a rider while you are there."

"But that could be dangerous." I said to Eragon. "Sending a defenseless girl into hostile territory is very bad. Blugun, Amethi and I will have to keep an eye on her at all times and protect her."

Eragon laughed loudly and then he said to me "What makes you think she is defenseless?"

I was now very confused. When I first saw Katrina I had thought that she looked weak and innocent, definitely not the kind of person who can fight.

"Katrina is a Stronghammer, Josh. All the children of the Stronghammer family are taught how to fight at an early age. They are also given a basic teaching of the ancient language. The reason why is simply because they are all related to me and so they must be prepared for battle at all times." Eragon went over to his desk and leaned against it.

"It may have been centuries ago but I still have enemies from when I killed Galbatorix. They are always looking for an opportunity to strike me and my family down." Eragon said to me.

"So Katrina can fight?" I asked Eragon. He nodded and then I imagined Katrina as a warrior wielding a sword and wearing armor, slaying all enemies in her path. _Damn._ I said to myself as I saw her fighting in my mind.

"So was Katrina being unable to fight your only worry or is there something else?" Eragon said to me with his eyebrows raised. It felt like he could see right into my soul and see the other reason why I didn't want Katrina to come.

I decided to try and make another excuse for her to not come. "Well shouldn't she stay with her dragon? It just hatched and so Katrina needs to stay with her dragon while it is still so young."

"That is true but I don't plan on sending you away so soon. There are still very many things that I must figure out before I send you out there." Eragon said to me. "I don't plan on sending you out there for several more months. By then Katrina should be able to leave her dragon for a while."

_Shit. _I thought to myself.

Before I could try to come up with another excuse Eragon said to me "You just don't want the two of you to be alone with the dragons. You're afraid to be alone with a girl who likes you because you don't want to fall for her and you don't want her to fall for you."

I stammered and tried to say something but nothing would come out. It was true, what Eragon had said. When I had first seen her I had thought that she was really cute and I also liked her. She seemed really sweet. And what if something went wrong between us and she suddenly started hating me? That would mean that a member of the second most powerful family in the world hated me and that would be nothing but trouble.

"Are you also worried about Katrina hating you?" Eragon said to me.

"Are you reading my mind?" I asked him. I didn't feel anybody in my mind except for Amethi and I distant connection to Blugun.

Eragon smiled and shook his head. "No, it is just a logical fear. The Stronghammer family is a powerful family and only answers to the royal family, which by the way I am also related to. Mutagh, my half-brother, is the one the one who put our blood into the royal family line when he courted Nasuada, the High Queen."

I had no idea Eragon was also related to the royal family. That just made me feel even worse. _Great, that means that if Katrina starts hating me then I will be an enemy of the __**two**__ most powerful families in the world!_

Eragon laughed as he saw my worried and bewildered face. "There is no need to worry, Josh. You two will get along great. Remember it will be months before you, Amethi, Blugun and Katrina leave so why don't you and Katrina get to know one another? She will be staying here on Vroengard until her father says that she can come home so you will have plenty of time to get to know her."

"I Katrina in some kind of trouble with her father?" I asked Eragon.

Eragon shook his head and then he said to me "The problem is all the boys and young men that keep chasing after Katrina. All the guys want her to be their wife. Katrina actually had to threaten them to stay away from here. The guys still didn't leave her alone. Her father decided to send her here for a while so she could get away from the guys. You will have to ask Katrina what finally made her father decide that. It is quite an amusing tale."

"Okay." I said to Eragon. "So will Katrina be attending classes with me?"

"Yes she will. She will not be an official part of your team though." Eragon said to me. "She will be attending the classes with Mando, Claire and you, as well as breakfast lunch and dinner but she will not be sharing your team building with you. She will be coming here when it is time for bed."

I nodded and then I asked Eragon "When will Katrina start classes with us?"

"The beginning of the week. She shall start the day after your next free day." Eragon said to me. "Well, that is all I wanted to speak to you about so you may both leave."

I bowed to Eragon and left the room, grabbing my jerkin and my glove on the way out, as I left the room I almost ran into and Urgal who was walking by. "Sorry about that." I said to him.

"No problem." The Urgal said to me then he continued walking away.

"Hey Josh!" I turned around as I heard the voice. It was Katrina. She was hurrying down the hallway towards me.

"Hey Katrina." I said to her as she reached me. Katrina still had her dragon with her but now it was awake and lying across her shoulders that were no longer covered in her white cloak. Now that the cloak was gone I could see that she was wearing a black skirt that reached down to the middle of her thighs, knee high brown leather boots and a white sleeveless tunic with a long curved sword in a black scabbard strapped onto her waist with a brown leather belt.

"So how are you?" Katrina asked me.

"I'm doing good. How about you?" I asked Katrina.

"I'm doing very good." Katrina said to me and then her dragon let out a little screech. Katrina looked over at her dragon and then Katrina got a look of confusion and she held her stomach.

"It's hungry." I said to Katrina.

Katrina looked back at me. "How do you know?" she asked me.

"The hunger you're feeling, it's not yours. The hunger belongs to your dragon." I said to Katrina. "When a dragon is this young they can't speak so they communicate by sending you their own feelings."

"Oh." Katrina said to me as she looked up at her dragon. "So you're hungry?" she asked the dragon. Again the dragon screeched. Katrina looked over at me and asked me "Do you know where I can get some food for it? Oh, and do you know how to figure out whether it is a boy or a girl?"

"Yeah, I know where to get some food and your dragon will tell you if it is a boy or a girl. It first has to be old enough to speak but by then it will know several words and when you hear its voice then you will be able to know the gender."

"You sure know a lot." Katrina said to me.

I chuckled and then I said to her "No, I don't know all that much. It's just my own experience with dragons. Follow me and I'll show you where to get some food." I started walking with Katrina following me.

"When Blugun was young, when he first started talking I couldn't tell whether or not he was a boy or a girl. His voice was kind of like in between but now his voice is real deep. It is very difficult to mistake him for a girl now."

Katrina giggled. Making her laugh made me feel very good on the inside.

As I led the way to the eating hall I continued to tell her all kinds of funny stories, making her laugh the whole way there.

By the time we reached the eating hall Katrina's cheeks were red from laughing so much and I felt amazing for making her laugh so much.

"This is the eating hall. This is where we young riders come to eat." I said to Katrina. "They aren't serving anything right now but you might be able to get some meat from the cooks."

I led her inside and then I knocked on the kitchen door. An elf with black hair opened the door. "Hey, I got a new rider here. Her dragon hatched just today and hasn't had a chance to eat yet. Have you got any meat back there for the dragon to eat?"

"Sorry, but no I don't. I can have some delivered though. Will that be alright?" he asked me.

I nodded and said "That'd be great."

The elf's face went blank for a few seconds and then he said "The meat will be delivered in front of the building in a few minutes."

"Thanks." I said to the elf. "Have a nice day."

"You to." The elf said to me. Then he nodded to Katrina and went back into the kitchen. I led the way outside and then we waited for the meat to be delivered. It wasn't long before a light brown dragon landed in front of the building holding the haunch of a deer.

The dragon dropped the haunch near us, Katrina thanked the dragon and then it nodded and flew away.

The meat still had the fur on it so I drew my knife and skinned the meat. Then I the meat up and handed the raw and bloody meat to Katrina who then fed it to her dragon. I was glad to see that Katrina wasn't afraid to touch the bloody meat.

"Is it still hungry?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina looked at her dragon. "Yeah, but just a little though." Katrina said to me.

I nodded and then cut out five more chunks. While I was cutting Blugun landed in front of us.

"Katrina, this is my dragon, Blugun. Blugun, this is Katrina Stronghammer." I said as I introduced them. I handed Katrina a third piece of meat.

"It's nice to meet you Blugun." Katrina said as she fed the meat chunk to her dragon.

_It is difficult to think that I used to be that small._ Blugun said to me.

I laughed as I remembered back when Blugun had first hatched.

"What are you laughing at?" Katrina asked me.

"Blugun was just commenting about how he could believe that he was once that small." I said with a laugh.

Katrina laughed with me as she fed her dragon the fourth piece of meat to her dragon.

I cut up the fifth piece of meat and then handed it to Katrina who fed it to her dragon.

"I think that will be good." Katrina said as her dragon licked its lips and then settled down in her lap and closed its eyes.

"Blugun, you feeling hungry?" I asked him as I held up the rest of the leg for him to inspect. Blugun sniffed the meat and then his mouth opened and he grabbed the meat from my hand and started to chew on it.

_Thanks, I was just beginning to feel hungry. _Blugun said to me. Blugun finished chewing and then he swallowed the piece of deer. After Blugun ate the meat we exchanged a few words and then he flew off in the direction of the lake.

"So, what all is there to do here?" Katrina asked me.

"There is quite a bit to do here." I said to Katrina. "There is a lake over there that the dragons and riders like to swim in," I said to Katrina as I pointed to my left. Then I pointed behind me and said "Behind me there is a training field where you can practice your fighting." Then I pointed between the two and said "Over there is a clearing in the forest where you can practice your magic. Back in the main building, the place where Eragon's office is, there is a large library full of all kinds of books and scrolls to read."

Katrina looked around with a confused look on her face. "Need me to show you where everything is?" I asked Katrina.

"Yes. I'm not very good with directions. I learn much better when I see it done." Katrina said to me.

I nodded and asked her "Which place do you want to go to first?"

Katrina thought it over and then she said "Could we check out the training field?"

I nodded and said to her "Sure, follow me." I started walking in the direction and Katrina followed, walking beside me with her dragon held in her arms. As we walked I occasionally snuck a glance at her, a few times I saw her eyes flick back to in front of her.

As I looked over at her again I noticed that she was shaking slightly. The air was a bit chilly today, that was why I had grabbed my jerkin.

"You getting cold?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina smiled and said "Only a little." I took off my jerkin and handed it to Katrina. "Thank you." Katrina said to me before she slipped it on. "Wow, this thing is big." Katrina said as she saw how her fingers barely poked out of the ends of the sleeves and the shoulders extended far away from her own.

"Sorry about that." I said with a chuckle. "I'm pretty broad in the shoulders." I said to her with a sideways glance.

"It's alright, it's really warm." Katrina said to me.

"Why did you come out here in a skirt and a sleeveless tunic?" I asked Katrina.

"It is pretty warm in Alagaesia at the moment. I wasn't expecting it to be cold here." Katrina said with a little laugh.

"Yeah, the weather threw me off a little as well when I first got here." I said to Katrina. "You'll get used to it quickly."

The rest of the walk to the training grounds was short and full of talk about the weather.

"Well, here it is. If you ever want to train with a weapon this is the place to go." I almost yelled to Katrina. I had to really speak up so that she could hear me over the sound of weapons clashing.

Several people on the field noticed me and then waved. Then their opponents took advantage of the opening and attacked. Then they also waved.

I waved back at them as I laughed.

"You seem pretty popular here." Katrina said to me.

I shrugged and then I said to her "I like to train a lot so I'm often over here. Plus, it's kind of hard to remain unknown when you have an arm like mine." I said to Katrina with a chuckle.

Katrina laughed with me and then she asked me "Do you want to have a quick duel?"

"Sure." I said to her. "But first, lets get some armor on." I then led Katrina over to a table that had spare armor on it.

Katrina set down her dragon and then she took off my jerkin and handed it to me. I laid it down next to the table. I grabbed a thin metal breastplate, gauntlets, greaves and a pair of metal plates that I could strap over my boots. Katrina grabbed a leather cuirass, gauntlets, boots and a helmet that had iron strips running over it. I looked through the armor but didn't find a helmet.

Just as I was about to give up one of the guys who had waved at me tossed me his helmet. "Good luck, Josh. You're going to get your ass kicked."

"Oh, you mean like you did?" I said to him. We both laughed and then I said to him "Thanks, dude. See you later."

"Yeah, see you later." The guy said as he walked away, holding his arm where his opponent's stick had hit him.

I took my sword off and leaned it against the table with the rest of the swords. Katrina did the same and then I went over to the table that all the fake swords on it. I grabbed one that looked like it had some good weight to it. Katrina grabbed a curved one that looked light-weight.

I led the way to an empty spot on the field and once I found one I stood at my ready position with my sword raised and my eyes on Katrina as she got into her ready position. Katrina's dragon walked over to the edge of our little area and sat down and watched us with large bright blue eyes. Katrina's stance looked like she preferred to fight with a shield.

"Do you want a shield?" I asked Katrina.

"No thanks. Whenever you're ready." She called out to me.

I said to her "You get first strike." Katrina nodded and then as fast as a cobra she swung at me. I barely got my sword up in time to block her strike. I retaliated with a downward strike but Katrina sidestepped and then I matched her step and swung at her legs but Katrina jumped over my stick and then she swung for my head but I ducked down to the ground, barely avoiding the attack.

For the next six minutes we traded blows, but it was a stalemate. Neither of us could best the other.

Finally, the both of us knelt in the dust and panted with our splintered sticks still in our sore hands.

"I don't think I shall win this one." I said to Katrina.

"Same here. You are a very good fighter, Josh." Katrina said to me.

I nodded and said to her "Thanks. You're a very good fighter as well."

I stood on shaky legs and walked over to her. I offered a hand to her and she grabbed it. I helped her to her feet and said to her "How about we postpone this fight until we become stronger?"

"Deal." Katrina said as she shook my hand. We went over to the table of armor and removed the pieces we had used and then set them down. Then we tossed our sticks into the large pile of cracked and broken sticks.

We then grabbed our swords and my jerkin, strapped them on and walked away with Katrina's dragon walking beside her heels.

"So where do you want to go now?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina didn't think long before she said "Can we go to the lake that you told me about?"

"Of course." I said to Katrina as I led the way. Again I let Katrina wear my jerkin. The sweat from our duel was still coating our skin and the breeze made the sweat feel freezing as it blew around us.

It took us a while but we finally reached the lake and there was a large number of riders and dragons still in the water.

"Is the water cold?" Katrina asked me.

I chuckled and went to check. I dipped a hand into the water. "The water is pretty warm. It's thanks to all the dragons that are in it." I said to Katrina.

"That's a relief." Katrina said with a sigh. Katrina's dragon and I watched as Katrina removed my jerkin and then her white tunic, revealing a thin black undershirt. Then she took off her skirt, leaving her in her undergarments and her boots. Katrina sat down and removed her boots.

Before Katrina caught me staring at her I hurried to get undressed as well. I left on my underpants on and then I piled my clothes and sword next to Katrina's and then I grabbed Katrina's hand and led her into the warm water.

As Katrina became immersed in the water, she sighed in happiness. "Ahh, that feels so good." Katrina ducked her head underwater and then came up with her red-hair dripping.

I dove underwater and swam around in the clear and warm water. As soon as I emerged I felt a small dragon hop on top of my head. I looked up at the little dragon and smiled as it looked curiously at the water around it.

Katrina came over to me and said "For some reason it doesn't like the water."

"Hm." I said as I tried to figure it out. Then the dragon looked over to the other big dragons and watched as they swam around. I felt the dragon shift its legs a little, as if it was attempting to mimic the other dragons. "Maybe the dragon is scared because it doesn't know how to swim?" I said to Katrina.

Katrina picked the dragon up off of my head and then held it over the water. We watched as it tried to mimic what it saw the other dragons doing. Slowly Katrina lowered it into the water and once she was sure that the dragon was deep enough in the water she let go of it and we both watched as the dragon first started sinking and then it waved its tail a little and suddenly it was swimming like a pro.

The next hour or so was spent in the warm water as we swam around. Eventually Blugun joined us and then Katrina and I took turns as Blugun dove deep into the water and then shot up high into the air.

At the end of the hour, Katrina was relaxing in the water, floating around. When I asked her what she was doing she said to me "I'm tired." Katrina giggled a little. "First I have one of the most difficult duels in my life and then I spend an hour in the water swimming and having fun. I'm exhausted." Again she giggled. "And hungry."

I checked the position of the sun and then I said to Katrina "It should be lunchtime in about twenty minutes. If we leave now then we should get to the eating hall in about fifteen minutes."

"How will it take so long?" Katrina asked me.

"Because we have to dry off and get dressed." I said to Katrina.

Katrina giggled again and said "Of course. I should have thought of that."

I laughed with her and then I stretched in the water. I was pretty tired to. Katrina stopped floating and then she stood on her feet and then with her dragon following behind us, swimming like a snake, we left the water and went onto the beach. We found our clothes and then Katrina looked through her clothes, possibly trying to find something to dry off with.

I said a quick spell and I was dry. Katrina looked at me and then she asked me "Could you do that for me?"

"Can't you do it?" I asked her.

Katrina shook her head and said "No, I just became a rider today. I don't know how to access my magic yet."

"Okay, I'll do the spell for you. Hold still." I said to Katrina. She nodded and then did as I told her and then she clenched her eyes shut.

I figured out the words I would have to use and then I used the spell. It took barely any energy from me but it still made me weaker. Then water ran off of Katrina and pooled around her feet. I then did the same to her dragon.

Katrina opened her eyes and then looked herself over. "Why are my br. . ." she stopped mid-sentence but I knew what she was going to ask.

"Well, in order for me to dry you off I need to know the shape0 of your body and in order for me to know that I have to look at you so your . . . your uh, um your, you know aren't dry and neither are your um . . ." I stammered as I tried to speak, my cheeks growing redder as I continued to speak. Katrina's were a dark pink as well.

"You don't need to say it, I got it." Katrina said with a giggle. Then she started to get dressed. I did the same and as I pulled up my black cloth pants I felt something slightly heavy lean on my shoulder and then I felt something touch my cheek. It was soft and gentle and when I looked over I saw that Katrina had kissed me on my cheek. "Thanks for being such a gentleman." Katrina said to me as she handed me my sword.

"You're welcome." I said to Katrina as I strapped it on. Katrina buckled her belt and then she linked her arm through mine as I led the way towards the eating hall.

Once we got there we didn't have to wait long before the food was served. Once we got our food we went to a vacant table and we ate while we talked. In the middle of our meal Claire and Manny sat in front of us. I introduced everybody and then we all started talking and eating together.

Once we were done eating we put our dishes with the rest of the dirty dishes. Claire and Manny went off to the magic field for some last minute magic training. Katrina and I were far to tired for any more training so we stayed behind while the elf and human rider walked away.

"You have very nice friends." Katrina said to me.

"Thanks." I said to Katrina. "But remember, they're your friends too."

Katrina smiled and said "Yeah, I guess they are." Then she looked up at the sky and saw how dark it was getting. "I had better be getting back to the central building. Will you walk with me?"

I nodded and smiled. "Sure." Again we linked arms and walked away together with Katrina's dragon following at our heels.

Unknown to us Manny and Claire were watching us from the shadows. "Pay up." Manny said to Claire.

"No, you bet that they were a couple and we are not yet sure about that. They could just be walking together." Claire said to Manny as she clutched a couple of gold coins to her chest.

"Fine, we will just have to wait and see." Manny said to Claire.

Katrina and I continued walking together, oblivious of the bet that had been made on us. I had expected to stop walking with Katrina once we got to the building but Katrina kept a hold on my arm until we were deep in the south side of the building. Katrina released my arm once we were in front of a plain looking door that was third in line in a long hallway of doors that looked exactly like it.

"Well, this is my room." Katrina said as she stood in front of her door. She bent down and picked up her dragon. "We should do this again. It was a lot of fun."

"I agree. It was a lot of fun. We really should do this again. Our next free day is the same day every week so we will have to do it then." I said to Katrina.

"Okay, well see you later." Katrina said to me as she opened her door and then rushed inside before I had a chance to say anything else.

I started walking back down the hallway until I heard a door open behind me. I turned just in time to see Katrina before she kissed me on my cheek again. Then she hurried back to her room. This time I managed to say "Good night." before she closed the door.

I walked through the building feeling amazing. Several minutes later when I entered my own room I saw that Blugun was curled up in his bed. He raised his head from its resting place on his paws. I collapsed on my bed, feeling absolutely tired and yet energized at the same time.

_Welcome back. _Blugun said with sarcasm in his voice.

_I know, I'm late._ I said to Blugun.

Blugun chuckled and then he said to me _So, is Katrina to be your mate?_

_What?!_ I yelled in both my mind and my own vocal cords.

_Is she to be your mate?_ Blugun asked me again.

"No! Well, I don't know! It's possible." I said to Blugun.

_Do you want her to be? _Blugun asked me.

I thought it over and then I said to him _I don't know. I think so but well this is the first time I've ever felt this way inside so I still have much to figure out._

_Good answer, Josh. The one for your heart is out there waiting for you and you never know when you will meet them. You must be ever vigilant in case you meet them. I believe you have met the one for your heart, you now just have to make her like you as well._ Blugun said to me.

_Again, Blugun my dear friend, though you may be young your words are laced with wisdom._ I said to Blugun. _But, I don't think that Katrina will like me any more than she already does. She is the daughter to the second most powerful family in the world so she obviously has to marry someone else of importance, not just someone she met on an island._

Blugun curled up in his bed and then closed his eyes. I also laid down in bed, not bothering to get undressed. But, before I fell asleep, Blugun whispered into my mind. _Josh, you must always remember that love will always find a way._

**Hey, I hope you guys all like how I added in a bit of romance. My girlfriend is the one who suggested it so if you have complaints, don't aim them at me. I hope you like how the second book is going so far, because I do. Please leave a review telling me what you think and have a nice day.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about being late in this update. I was out grocery shopping and only recently got back. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

I awoke to the sound of my alarm ringing. As my dream of Katrina and I faded from my mind I took a quick bath and then dressed. It was a little warm today so I wore a grey sleeveless tunic. I left my room with Blugun following behind me.

When we reached the eating hall Blugun went up into his eating cave with the rest of the dragons and then I went into my eating hall.

As I walked in, I saw that there was a group of three guys standing behind a girl at one of the tables. The guys were the ones that had broken their hands when they tried to punch my arm.

I went over to them and got a closer look at the girl. It was Katrina and she had her eyes focused on her food, her dragon sitting on the seat next to her eating from a plate of raw meat. As I approached them, the short stocky guy with the short black hair noticed me and started to back away. The other two saw how their friend was backing away and then they looked over at me and they too backed off.

I went over to Katrina and rested a hand on Katrina's shoulder.

"How many times must I tell you guys?! I already have a boyfriend!" then she looked up at me and stuttered, trying to say something while a dark blush crawled across her face. "I-I was just saying that so that uh, those guys would, you know, leave me alone." I smiled and Katrina smiled back at me and then she stood up and wrapped me in a hug. "Sorry about that, Josh. Those three have been bothering me the entire time I've been eating."

Katrina looked over at the guys and saw how they had apologetic smiles and all were clutching their right hand. "Did something happen between you guys?" Katrina asked me.

"Yeah, they used to bully me but then they broke their hands on my arm when they tried to punch it. I then mended their hands and afterwards we came to a bit of an agreement." I said to Katrina. "Although it looks like they broke their promise."

I cracked my knuckles and then took a step towards them. All three jumped in fright and then they ran away and out of the building. "Although, they have never been afraid of me before." I said to Katrina. "They have never ran away from me before."

"I think that those three where there when you and I sparred yesterday." Katrina said to me. "Plus, you are bigger than you used to be." Katrina said to me. "I'm not surprised that they are afraid of you."

"How do you know how big I used to be?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina went a little pink and then she said "Uncle Eragon showed me a fairth he made of you from back when you first came here." Katrina sat back down and I sat next to her. "He makes a fairth of every rider and their dragon when they first come here and then he makes another of them a few days before they leave. It is so he can compare them and see how much they've grown. He then gives both of the fairths to the riders before they leave that way they can also see how much they've grown."

"Cool." I said to Katrina. "So, how do you feel about joining the classes?"

Katrina swallowed her bite of food and then she said "I love it. It gives me something to do all day plus I get to make all kinds of friends." At that last part Katrina blushed a little.

I smiled and asked Katrina "Has anyone told you the schedule?"

Katrina shook her head and then she said to me "No, somebody was supposed to but he had to leave to attend to his other duties."

I nodded and then I said to her "Well, obviously we first come here for breakfast. Afterwards we have a little free time to do as we wish; prepare for the first class, finish homework, or just relax. Then, we go to our first class which is fighting. We are there for about four hours and then we go to lunch. After that we go to our magic class. Again we are there for about four hours. After that we have a couple hours until dinner starts being served but because of how we are leaving from our magic class, we can usually head straight here."

"Why would you need to eat right after your magic class?" Katrina asked me.

"Because, we might need the energy that the food will give us." I said to Katrina. "Sometimes Serena, our magic teacher, makes us do some powerful spells so we will sometimes be exhausted from the spells."

"Oh." Katrina said to me. "So what do you do after your magic class and dinner?"

I thought it over and then said "Mostly homework that we get from Serena. If not, then some extra training with either sword of magic."

"Sounds kinda boring." Katrina said to me.

I chuckled and said to her "Yeah, it mostly is. But, we can't get better if we don't practice. Be right back, I'm going to get some food." I said to Katrina as I stood up.

"Okay." Katrina said before turning back to her own plate.

I returned a minute or two later with a plate of fruits and vegetables. Katrina looked at my plate and then she asked me "You don't eat meat?"

"I only eat meat when I have to." I said to Katrina.

Katrina tilted her head to the side as she tried to figure it out. "Why?" she asked me.

"You'll find out." I said to Katrina. Katrina opened her mouth to say something else but then she shut it. she seemed to be thinking about something but then she shook her head and continued to eat. "Have you expanded your mind yet?" I asked Katrina.

"I've tried it." Katrina said to me. "It feels really weird, it feels like I'm opening myself up and then letting myself wander around."

That was a strange way to describe it. "Well, in a way you are opening yourself. You're opening your mind. Have you connected to your dragon yet?"

Katrina shook her head and then she looked over at her dragon and then she closed her eyes and then with my mind I felt her open herself and then touch the mind of her dragon. The little creature shivered a little from the mental connection and then it looked up at it's rider.

Katrina opened her eyes and then she turned to me and said with a very happy smile "I did it!"

"Great job, Katrina. I knew you could do it." I said to Katrina. "Now, try to connect with mine."

Katrina nodded and then she closed her eyes again. I took a bit out of a carrot as I felt Katrina's mind touch mine.

Katrina's mind was full of energy, it was also full of happiness. Everything in her mind had a nice feeling to it, making me happy.

Katrina pulled out of my mind and then she opened her eyes. Again she smiled broadly. "That is amazing. Anna was always talking about how it felt to touch another's mind but I never imagined it could feel like that."

I smiled as well and then I asked her "So what does my mind feel like?"

Katrina thought it over for a few seconds and then she said "It's hard to explain, but it was rough and yet soft at the same time. Being inside your head made me feel happy."

"Same here." I said to Katrina. "When your mind connected with mine I felt all the energy and happiness in you and that made me happy as well."

Katrina giggled and then she said "How far can you spread your mind?"

"Pretty far." I said to Katrina. "Last time I checked I could feel Blugun's mind from about seven miles away. How about you? How far can you spread your mind?"

Katrina closed her eyes and then spread out her mind. I felt it extend a few feet and then it started to waver and then it returned to Katrina's head.

"Only a few feet." Katrina said to me with a sad sigh.

"That's pretty good for a new rider. Most can only extend about a foot away. When I first started I could only go like, two feet." I said to Katrina.

Katrina giggled and then she continued to eat her food. We finished our food and then I showed Katrina where to put her dirty plate and silverware.

When we left the eating hall, the sun was bright and there was a refreshing breeze.

"It's amazing how the weather changes here." Katrina said to me. "Just yesterday it was chilly and not it is nice and warm."

"Yeah, the weather is a little crazy here." I said to Katrina. "So, you wanna do something before we go to our first class?" I asked Katrina.

"I would love to but I promised Anna that I would talk to her after I got down with breakfast. She has probably already connected her mirror with mine and is waiting on me." Katrina said to me. "See you in a bit, Josh."

"See you later." I said to Katrina as we went our separate ways.

"Hold on!" Katrina said as she hurried to my side.

"Yeah?" I asked Katrina.

"Well, uh, Anna wants to meet you. I talked to her last night and told her about you and now she wants to meet you so will you come with me?" Katrina asked me.

"Sure." I said to Katrina. Katrina linked her arm with mine and then we walked together to her room. I could feel countless eyes looking at us as we walked. Katrina opened the door to her room and then she led the way inside.

The room was designed as almost the same as mine, but it was much smaller, the size of a regular bedroom. It had two windows on one wall and through it I could see a garden full of all kinds of flowers. Katrina had a large bed with white covers and like mine it had a bedside table. On one wall there was a door and I was guessing that it was her closet. Katrina had a large white rug in the center of the wooden floor. She had an elaborately carved chair sitting next to a small table and a book shelf with three small shelves on it. It only had five books on it though.

On the opposite side of the room was a dark wooden desk with a wooden chair sitting in front of it. Attached to the wall above the desk was an oval mirror sitting in a plain silver frame and in the mirror I could see a brown haired girl sitting there in a slightly dark room, leaning back in a chair with a book in hand. Katrina and the girl looked a lot alike. She must be Anna.

When Katrina closed the door Anna looked up from her book and smiled. Then she closed her book and sat it down on the desk in front of her then she put all four legs of the chair on her floor with a loud clack.

"Well, Sister, introduce us." Anna said as she looked through the mirror at me.

"Be patient, Anna." Katrina said to her sister. Katrina sat down on the chair and then I stood beside her. Katrina looked around her room and then she said to me "Josh, you can grab that chair over there to sit in." then she pointed to the chair near her bookcase.

I nodded and then went and grabbed it. I carried it over to the mirror and then set it down and sat in it.

"Anna, this is my friend, Josh." Katrina said to her twin sister. "Josh, this is my sister, Anna."

"Katrina told me you were handsome but she never said you were this handsome." I blushed a little from the compliment.

I tried to clear my throat of the lump that was suddenly in it. "Thanks." I said to Anna. "You look very nice as well."

Anna was wearing a simple light blue tunic with short sleeves. Her brown hair was loose and hung down to her shoulders Anna's green eyes shone out from behind her curly locks of hair.

"Thank you. Well, it looks like Katrina was right, you are a gentleman." Anna said to me as she folded her hands and then rested her head on them.

I heard Katrina groan and then I looked over to her and saw that she was blushing darkly and was gritting her teeth.

"It's amazing how often she blushes, isn't it, Josh?" Anna asked me.

I shrugged and said to Anna "I think the blush makes Katrina look cute." I realized what I had said after I had said it. I stammered as it tried to take it back. I looked over to Katrina and saw that she was blushing even darker, but this time she was smiling.

"You really think I'm cute?" Katrina asked me as she looked up at me. I tried to say something but in the end I just nodded. "Thanks." Katrina said to me.

"You two are so adorable together." Anna said to us. "Much better than the suitor that Father is trying to make me get together with." Both of the girls trembled a little.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked Anna.

"So many things I can't count them. But, to list off a few there is his odor, he smells like he doesn't bathe at all, then there are his manners. Ugh, it's as if he was taught to be a pig. He's also always talking about himself, never listening to what others have to say. He is a spineless fool." Anna said with disgust. "The other day when we were walking through the streets a dog jumped out of a nearby alley and it scared William so much I'm pretty sure he shit himself, but with how he smells it would be difficult to tell."

"That guy sounds terrible. Why is your father trying to hook you up with him?" I asked Anna.

Anna sighed and said "Because it would combine our two families as one and end the quarrel that has been going on for the past seventy years."

"That sucks." I said to Anna.

Anna nodded and said "It sure does." Then she looked down at the dragon sitting in Katrina's lap and asked Katrina "So how is your dragon doing?"

"Pretty good. It eats all its food and it is also very energetic. I don't think it has a single illness." Katrina said to Anna.

"Well the purple on it makes it look a little sick." Anna said to Katrina.

"The purple is from it's mother, Amethi." I said to Anna.

Anna looked over at me and asked me "Is Amethi your dragon?"

I shook my head and said "Blugun is. He is the father."

"Ahh." Anna said to me. "So is that where the blue comes from?"

I nodded. "Where is Glacia?" I asked Anna.

"Out hunting." Anna said to me. "She left a few a few minutes before you guys came into the room."

I nodded and then I looked out the windows. I saw the position of the sun through the windows. "We have about fifteen minutes before our first class." I said to Katrina. I then remembered that I never even started the translation homework that Selena had given to us. "I gotta go, I forgot about my homework and I have got to get it done." I said to Katrina and Anna as I got up from the chair and put it back to where it had been.

I then quickly left the room at full sprint.

Back in Katrina's room Katrina was very pissed off at Anna.

"How could you tell Josh what I had said?!" Katrina asked Anna. "That was so embarrassing!"

Anna giggled and then she asked Katrina "How could you not tell me what Josh really looked like? You just said he was handsome, that guy was hot! He had broad shoulders, bulging muscles and his dragon arm made him look, oh I can't even think of a word that would fit. The arm just helped him to look so much better."

"Why did you have to talk to him about me blushing?" Katrina asked Anna.

"Hey, if I hadn't done that then you never would have heard about how he thinks you're cute." Anna said to Katrina.

"Well, why did you have to bring up William?" Katrina asked Anna.

Anna shook her head and then she said "Because I'm jealous. You have that amazing guy as a boyfriend and I have a pig in a human body."

"Hey, Josh and I are not a couple!" Katrina said to Anna.

"Yes you are!" Anna said to Katrina. "You two went out on a date and you have another planned for your next free day. You two are dating, Katrina. He is your boyfriend and you are his girlfriend."

"Oh my god, you're right!" Katrina said to Anna. "We are dating. What do I do? I've never had a boyfriend before." Katrina frantically asked her sisiter.

Anna laughed a little and then she said to her twin "Relax, Katrina. Just be yourself. Be careful of what you say. Although I suggest telling him about why you had to go there, to Vroengard. It was horrible when I first heard but then it became pretty funny after a while."

Katrina stared at her sister until Anna said to her "I know it was terrible for you but for anybody who hears the story it is hilarious."

Katrina sighed and then slumped her shoulders. "When should I tell him?" Katrina asked Anna.

"Whenever you want. It's just a story." Anna said to Katrina. "Well, you had better get going if you want to make it to your first class on time."

Katrina nodded and then she said "Talk to you later, Anna. Same time tomorrow?"

Anna nodded and then she waved bye and cancelled the spell, then Katrina hurried out of the room.

Back at my room, I was strapping on my sword. I went to my door and then slipped my boots on. As I left the room, Blugun launched himself out of the opening in the wall. I closed it quickly with a spell and then went on my way to class.

A few minutes later and I was sitting on the grass with Manny and Claire, waiting for Samson, our fighting instructor, and Katrina.

I heard the sound of running feet and looked off to me left. I saw Samson running towards us and he kept glancing behind him, watching the person running behind him.

When Samson stopped at the field, Katrina came out from behind the large man breathing hard and wearing a brown leather cuirass with thin strips of metal around the edges and over her chest and abdomen, a pair of fingerless brown leather gauntlets with metal studs on the forearms and a pair of boots that matched the rest of the armor. Covering her red hair was a simple leather cap. Strapped to her waist her sword she had used when we had fought against each other.

"Very good, Katrina." Samson said to her in his booming voice. "It looks like the Stronghammer blood runs strong in you."

"Thank you. My great grandmother says that you are a great teacher." Katrina said to Samson after she had regained her breath. "I'm greatly looking forward to studying underneath you."

Samson smiled and said "Evangeline is an amazing fighter, as was her dragon, Silna." Samson looked into the sky and his smile got wider. "How have they been?"

"They've been great." Katrina said to Samson. "They have decided to start teaching new riders in the western part of Surda. They have two students right now; both are in their third month of being riders."

"That is good to hear." Samson rested a hand on the hilt of his large sword and then he asked Katrina "So Katrina, are you ready to start learning?"

"Yes sir." Katrina said to him.

"Great." Samson said to her. "Class, today I want all of you to practice on your archery. It has been quite some time since we last practiced and I don't want you losing your edge."

For the next half hour the four of us shot arrow after arrow at circular targets made of hay. Then we spent half an hour shooting at human shaped dummies. We practiced not only kill shots, but also crippling shots.

By the time we were done shooting, Katrina had more than proven that she was an incredible archer.

After the archery, we sparred. I went up against Manny and Katrina went against Claire. Manny won our fight after only a few minutes but Katrina managed to hold off Claire for a while but Claire eventually got the best of Katrina and won the fight. Then we switched partners and I was now fighting Claire and Katrina was fighting Manny. I won my fight, but only because Claire was tired from her battle with Katrina. Manny won his fight again. And then once more we switched partners and I was sparring against Katrina and Manny was sparring against Claire.

Just like the first time we fought, it was a stalemate; with the both of us tired from our previous fights it wasn't long before we were sitting next to each other on the hard ground, leaning and resting against each other.

We watched as Manny went easy on Claire. The fight lasted a while, and by the time it was done Claire was drenched in sweat and breathing hard while Manny was only lightly sweating; not from the fight but from the heat of the day.

"Alright, I think that is enough for the day." Samson said to us as he stood up from his chair. "All of you did very nicely today. You have about ten minutes until lunch so go ahead and rest up then go to lunch." Samson said before turning around and leaving.

As soon as Samson left Katrina's dragon came over to Katrina and nuzzled up against her thigh. Katrina rubber her dragon's head while it stretched out and yawned. "Damn, that was exhausting." Katrina said with a sigh.

I chuckled and then I said to her "Yeah, sometimes we work pretty hard in this class."

"That wasn't just pretty hard that was very hard." Katrina said to me. "Although, nothing can really compare to my first instructor. That old man went straight from sprinting to sparring. Thankfully Samson made us practice archery. It helped me to get a bit of energy back."

I chuckled again. "You'll get used to it." I said to Katrina.

"Is there anything to drink nearby?" Katrina asked me.

I nodded and said to her "There is a large basin of water over there." I pointed off to my right and behind the table that held our swords. "There should be some cups nearby."

Katrina stood up and went over to the basin. She looked around for a few seconds and then she found one of the tin cups sitting next to the basin. She dipped the cup into the water and pulled out her cup, filled to the brim with water. She took a little sip, possibly testing the water. And then she drank the rest of the water in few seconds. She refilled her cup and then grabbed a second cup and filled that one as well. She came back over to me and handed me one of the cups.

"Thanks." I said to Katrina as I took the cup of water. Katrina sat back down and leaned against me as well. I took a couple drinks from my cup of ice cold water and watched the clouds fly through the light blue sky.

Several feet away Manny and Claire were watching Katrina and I. I could feel their eyes on me and I could barely hear the whispers that passed between them. I couldn't hear them well enough to know what they were saying but I had a feeling that it was about Katrina and me.

Several minutes later I looked over to Katrina and saw that her eyes were closed and she was breathing gently. Katrina was asleep on my shoulder. I gently prodded her mind with my own until she woke up and then I asked her "Are you ready for some lunch?"

Katrina yawned and then she said "Hell yeah."

I smiled and then I stood up and helped Katrina to her feet. Mando and Claire also got to their feet and then the four of us went to the eating hall with Katrina's dragon following behind us. We all got some food and then sat down at a table and ate while we talked. Halfway through our meal, I felt with my mind that Blugun and Amethi flying overhead and heading into their large cave to eat.

I carried out two conversations at once, one with Blugun and Amethi, the other with Katrina, Manny and Claire. It was difficult to keep track of my responses and make sure that I gave the right ones to the right group of people but I managed.

When we were done eating, we went outside and Blugun and Amethi met us out there with a chunk of meat that Blugun cooked up in a few seconds with his dark blue flames. I cut the meat up and then handed it to Katrina who then fed it to her dragon.

While we fed the little dragon, Amethi and Blugun questioned Katrina about their child. It took Katrina a few minutes to get used to talking using her mind but she eventually got used to it. Once all the meat was eaten Blugun and Amethi flew back up to their cave and continued to eat.

Katrina, Manny, Claire and I all went to our magic class. While Katrina tried to memorize the way there, I told her about the stuff we had been going over recently.

When we got into the clearing, we saw that there were now five chairs instead of four. Manny Claire and I sat down in our usual spots and then Katrina sat down in the empty chair beside me. I continued to tell Katrina all the stuff we had learned about for the next few minutes.

I stopped talking when Silina, our magic teacher, walked out of the trees with her silver hair flowing gently with the breeze over her elven face. Her red robes blew around her long legs as she strode up to us.

"Welcome, Katrina Stronghammer. It is a pleasure to have you in my class." Silina said to Katrina in the ancient language.

Katrina responded in the same language. "It is a pleasure to be here as well. I am greatly looking forward to this class." Katrina said to Silina. Silina had a large smile and it grew larger as Katrina continued to speak. "I was given lessons on basic words and grammar in this language. I hope it is satisfactory to you."

Silina nodded and with a very large smile she said "It is perfect. I was afraid I would have to start all over with you but it looks like that is not the case. Have you attempted any kind of magic yet?"

Katrina shook her head and then she said "No, I wanted to wait until I was in the presence of a master before I attempted anything. I was afraid that I would mess up and then the spell would drain me of all my energy." Katrina said to Silina. "I have heard many stories about people who used to much energy in a spell and then died as a result. Because of this I was afraid to attempt anything."

Silina nodded and then she said to Katrina in English "You were very smart to think that. It is very dangerous to experiment with magic when you are not in the presence of someone who knows what they are doing." Silina sat down and then she asked Katrina "Katrina, are you ready to learn the ancient art of magic?"

Katrina nodded vigorously and said "Yes, Ebrithil."

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review and have a nice day.**


	4. Chapter 4

After Silina had given Mando, Claire and I our assignment for the day, she started showing Katrina how to use her magic. The three of us were distracted from our lesson when Katrina suddenly yelled out. I released the spell I was working on and then I looked over to her to see a pebble floating above her hand.

Her dragon was jumping up and down in excitement as it watched its rider perform magic.

"Nice job." I said to Katrina. Katrina smiled and blushed a little, but she kept her concentration on the pebble.

I turned back around and continued with my own magic.

By the end of class, I was finished with my lesson and so was everyone else. Katrina was completely exhausted and was having troubles standing up. I went over to her and asked her "You feeling alright?"

"Yeah," Katrina said to me. "Just a little tired."

I smiled a little and then I asked her "Do you want some of my energy?"

"You can give me your energy?" Katrina asked me.

I nodded and said to her "Yep, so do you want some?"

Katrina nodded and said to me "If you don't mind."

I focused some of my energy and then I grabbed Katrina's hand and passed on the energy to her. Katrina sighed in happiness as the energy flowed through her. Once I was thought that I had given Katrina plenty of energy I stopped the flow and released her hand.

"Thanks, I needed that." Katrina said to me. Katrina stood up, picked up her dragon and then followed as I led the four of us to our building for some rest before dinner. Once we got to the building, Manny, Claire and I used a spell and went up to the roof. After I had landed on the roof, I went to the edge of the roof and then I focused on Katrina and used the spell again and slowly Katrina floated up to the roof.

Katrina stumbled a little when she landed on the roof. I looked around for something for Katrina to sit on, but before I could find anything Manny used a spell and used the materials that they building was made of and created a chair for Katrina.

Katrina moved the chair till it was in the shade and then she sat in it and the rest of us did the same.

"So is every day like this?" Katrina asked me.

"Pretty much but usually we are given a new set of words every Monday but today we didn't get one." I told her.

"What are the words for?" Katrina asked me.

"The words are for a list of the ancient language that we all have to make." I said to Katrina. "We have to make an entire book that contains the list of the ancient language as well as a translation of each word. In the book is also all of the stories that we are given."

Katrina frowned and then she said "That sounds like a lot of work."

I nodded and then I said "Yeah, it was at first but then we started to get used to it and it got easier."

"It doesn't sound easy." Katrina said to me. I chuckled and nodded. "So how long have you been here?" Katrina asked me.

I concentrated hard but I couldn't figure out how long I had been on Vroengard. "I have no idea." I said to Katrina. I looked over to Manny and asked him "Manny, do you know how long we have been here on Vroengard?"

Manny thought for a few seconds and then he said to me "A little less than half a year."

"Damn," I said to him. "Has it really been that long?"

Manny nodded his head. "A little more than five months."

"Holy shit, you have been here for quite a while." Katrina said to me. "Where did you live before you came here?"

"I used to live on the farthest edge of Surda in a small town called Everton." I told Katrina. "You lived in Carvahall, right?" Katrina nodded and then I asked her "Why did you leave?"

Katrina's cheeks went a little pink and then she told me "It is a bit of an embarrassing story."

"If you don't want to tell us then it's perfectly alright if you don't say anything." I told Katrina.

Katrina turned towards Claire and then asked her "Claire, is it alright if I tell you the story first and then see if you think that it is inappropriate for boys to hear?"

"Hey, I'm not a boy!" Manny yelled out. "I'm almost a man!"

"Sorry Manny." Katrina said to the elf. "Will you please listen to the story first?" Katrina asked Claire again.

Claire nodded and then the two girls moved their chairs over to the other side of the roof and for the next several minutes Claire held her head close to Katrina's as Katrina told her the story. At the end of the story Claire laughed loudly and didn't stop for a while. Then Katrina continued to tell Claire her story.

Katrina was blushing deeply as she and Claire returned to us. "I really do think that you should tell them the story." Claire said to the pink faced Katrina.

Katrina nodded and then she took a deep breath and started her story.

"About three weeks before I had to come here, I had a bit of a suitor problem." Katrina said to us. "I had boys and men always following me all over the place no matter where I went. They were always pestering me and trying to get me to go out with them. I told them countless times that I had other plans but they kept on following me and asking me. This one guy, he took it to far." Katrina coughed a little and then she continued telling her tale.

"He tried to force me to go out with him." Katrina said to us. I felt a surge of emotions jolt through me as she said it. I couldn't figure out what they were so I just ignored the feelings and continued to listen to her story. "He grabbed me by the arm and tried to drag me to some place but all the other guys tried to attack him for trying to take me away."

"The guy must have had some kind of magic training because three of the guys suddenly froze and dint move and then the rest got so scared that they ran away. The guy released the three from his spell and then they ran as well." Katrina said to us. "I tried to fight against him but he was to strong, so I used a special fighting move that my grandfather taught to me."

"I grabbed the guy's wrist, twisted it, and then pulled it up behind his back." Katrina said to us with a smile. "But then he hit me in the face with his elbow, which made me let go of him. He tried to grab me again but I jumped out of the way. Before I could run away, he cast the same spell on me and I couldn't move."

"He was about to try and pick me up but a rock flew out of no-where and hit him in the forehead. He lost control of his spell and once I was able to move again, I kicked him in the groin," both Mando and I winced and held our hands close to our own groin while Claire laughed her ass off, "And then as he was bent over I punched him in the face. I then got a hold of his arm, this may have been overdoing it but, I broke his arm. I held it against the ground and then I stomped on his forearm until I heard the bones snap."

_Damn, I'm glad she's on my team or else I would definitely get my ass kicked by her. _I thought to myself as I listened to the story.

"I then ran to my house and told my father what had happened." Katrina told us. "He said that if something like that happened again then he would send me someplace where I wouldn't have to deal with guys following me everywhere."

"All of the rest of the week I was still followed by guys, but this time there weren't any more of the nice young gentlemen. All the guys had gotten it into their thick skulls that I didn't want any regular bodied or thin men; they thought that I only wanted a strong man with huge muscles and a small brain. I'm guessing it was because of how I had beaten down the magic user."

"On the last day of the week, I had finally managed to get away from the guys, all except for one who managed to hide from my sight in the shadows." Katrina sighed and then she continued speaking. "He followed me home and watched all the windows of the house until he saw the light from me lighting a candle in my room."

Katrina went a little pink and then she said to us "I was changing my clothes and I was almost completely naked and while I was looking in the mirror I saw a face in my window. At first I thought my eyes were just playing tricks on me so I turned around and screamed once I figured out that he was real. The guy fell from my window and landed on the yard, three stories down."

I chuckled a little, as did Manny. Katrina laughed a little to and then she continued to tell her tale. "I looked out the window and saw the guy on the ground, knocked the fuck out. Some of the servants came out and checked on the guy while I got dressed. I then went outside and checked out how the guy was doing. Sadly, he was awake and sitting up. My father came out to see what was going on and it didn't take long for him to figure out what was going on."

"My father thought it over and finally figured out that the only place where I can be safe is here, on Vroengard. So, he contacted Uncle Eragon and then they both got everything straightened out and after a few days I had all my stuff packed and I was on my way here. I was here for a couple days then Uncle Eragon called me into his office and that was where my dragon hatched for me," Katrina said as she stroked the back of her dragon, "And that was where we first met." Katrina said to me.

"Damn, that is some story." I said to Katrina.

Katrina smiled and said "Thanks. So what is your story, Josh?" Katrina asked me.

"Nothing much really." I said to Katrina. "I went to the annual Egg Hatching that was a few days travel from where I lived and I was the fourth person to have an egg hatch for them. Blugun and I both soon started taking classes from a rider named Setimus and his dragon, Gunder."

"I was the only one from my town that had a dragon hatch for them so I was the only one who was in my class." I told Katrina. "Before I became a rider, I had a bit of trouble with a couple of bullies but once I became a rider they avoided me as if I had the plague." I said with a chuckle. "Once I had a basic knowledge of magic, I found the bullies and then I started launching small pebbles at them. But then Septimus and my mother got angry at me for doing that and they showed me how I had been wrong to do that."

"I then used my magic and molded a couple of dragon sculptures out of some rock and I gave the sculptures to the bullies, along with an apology." I said to Katrina. "Then my bullies apologized to me and we stopped bothering each other."

"After that nothing exciting happened and it wasn't long before Septimus thought that I was ready to come here, to Vroengard." I said to Katrina.

"What did your parents think when they learned that Blugun had hatched for you?" Katrina asked me.

I smiled at the memory and then I told her "My mother was absolutely thrilled. She invited all my friends over threw a party for me; it was a lot of fun."

"What about your father?" Katrina asked me.

I shrugged and said "Never really knew him. He left when I was really young so I don't even remember what he looks like."

Katrina's eyes widened in astonishment, and then she tried to apologize for bringing up the subject of my father but I told her it was alright.

"Claire, what about you?" Katrina asked. "What is your story?"

"Like Josh's, nothing much." Claire told Katrina. "I used to live in Uru'baen. I went to the Hatching and was one of three people to have a dragon hatch for them. My parents threw an extravagant party for me after Luna hatched for me. All my friends and relatives came and we partied for like, three days straight. I honestly don't remember most of it but I'm pretty sure that I jumped off of the roof and into our pool."

"How high was the roof?" Katrina asked Claire with concern in her voice.

Claire smiled and said "Only two stories high. The section of the pool that I jumped into was deep so I wasn't hurt."

"I was the top student in my class which made the other students not like me all that much because they were both guys and they were embarrassed to be beaten by a girl." Claire said with a chuckle. "My classmates spent so much time hating me that they never got their work done and so they were sent to a different school to train. I was sent here after a while and that's the end of my story."

"Cool. Manny, what about you?" Katrina asked the elf.

"I lived in a small city that didn't have a Hatching anywhere near it so I had to travel quite a ways to get to the nearest city that had one. Once I got to the city I had no idea where I was supposed to go so I just wondered around until I found a building that appeared to be an inn so I walked in, hoping for a bed to sleep in." Mando said to us.

"It turns out that the building I walked into was indeed an inn, but every room was taken by other elves and humans who had come to the city for the Hatching. Just as I was about to leave the inn, I walked right into someone who was carrying a large wooden box." Mando told us as he used his hands to show us the size of the box.

"The box was full of the guy's clothes and they all fell out of the box once I walked into the guy so I helped him to gather up all of his clothes again and then he went to his room and I went outside and climbed a nearby tree until I found a comfortable place to sleep."

"The next morning when I woke up, the sun was high in the sky and I could hear cheering." Manny said to us. "I leapt out of the tree once I realized that the Hatching had already begun and that I was late. I hurried to the Hatching Grounds and saw that there was only two more eggs left but here was still like, ten more people left."

"I stood in line as one of the eggs hatched and then shortly after that one the other hatched, neither of them to me." Manny told us. "Just as I was about to leave a man came running to the grounds and he was holding another egg in his arms. As the man ran to put the egg on one of the pedestals that the eggs rested on the egg blew apart and Wendur jumped out of the man's arms before he touched the man and then Wendur ran to me and jumped up on me."

"I later figured out that Wendur's egg couldn't be found before the Hatching and so they had started without his egg while several men continued to search. They had found Wendur's egg underneath one of the beds in the room that the eggs had been before the Hatching."

"I soon left and went back home and my parents threw me a party and almost the entire village came for the celebrations." Mando told us. "After the party I went to the nearest city that was large enough to have a rider school and started taking lessons. I was in a class of like, seven. I was one of the best and soon came here. If Josh had shown up a day later then he would have been on a different team and someone from my class would have taken your place. I'm glad you came when you did." Manny said to me.

"Thanks." I said to the elf. I looked up to the sky and checked the position of the sun. we had been up on the roof telling our stories for the past hour. "Damn, we've been up here for an entire hour. It doesn't feel like it's been that long."

Manny nodded and then he said to me "Time fly's when you're having fun."

"Aint that the truth." Claire said to us.

After that, we all just sat in silence and relaxed in the warm evening air. I must have dozed off because when I opened my eyes it was slightly dark out. I looked around and saw that the others were also sleeping. I gently prodded them awake with my mind, telling them that it was time for dinner.

We all hurried to the eating hall and went inside to see that it was almost empty of riders. We hurried over to where the food was and we were happy to see that there was still more than enough food for us all. We piled our plates high with food and then we sat down and dug in.

Afterwards, we left the eating hall and met up with Amethi as she gave us a large chunk of meat that she quickly cooked with a blast of fiery breath. I cut up the meat with a dagger and then Katrina fed her dragon the chunks of meat.

Once Katrina's dragon was fed she picked up the dragon and then they both yawned. "Josh, will you walk with me back to my room?" Katrina asked me.

I nodded and said "Sure." Katrina then led the way to her room and before long we were standing outside her door. "Thanks for walking me." Katrina said to me.

"You're welcome. Good night." I said to Katrina.

"Good night." Katrina said after another yawn. She then went into her room and I went towards my own for a good night's rest.

I was walking down to hall when I heard bare feet slapping on the cold and hard stones that the floor was made of. I turned around and saw that Katrina was running to me with her boots off and her hair flowing behind her.

Katrina reached me and after taking a few seconds to catch her breath she said to me "I almost forgot to ask you something."

"What is it?" I asked Katrina.

"Well, uh. . ." katrina's face was turning pink as she tried to ask me her question. "Josh, are we, you know, um. . ." again Katrina faltered in her question.

"Are we what?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina looked around the stone corridor, as if looking for something, and then in a rush she asked me "Are we boyfriend and girlfriend?"

The suddenness of her question startled me and it took me a few seconds to answer. "I think so. We did go out earlier and we did set up another date for our next free day, so I guess we are dating."

Katrina smiled and hugged me. I happily returned the hug. When we pulled apart, Katrina gave me another small kiss, this time on the lips. "Good night, boyfriend." Katrina said before she sprinted for her room.

I continued to stand in the hallway for a few seconds and then in a daze I found my way back to my own room. I stumbled through the door, removed my boots and then I walked over to my bed and collapsed on the bed. I touched my lips where I still felt the touch of Katrina's soft lips.

I felt Blugun enter my mind and then said to me _I told you so._

_What do you mean? _I asked the large dragon.

_I told you that you two were meant for each other._

I was silent for a few seconds and then I said to him _Whatever. It was just one kiss; it could mean anything. Get some sleep; we have class in the morning._

Blugun chuckled and then he said _Good night, Josh._

_Good night, Blugun. _I said to my dragon as I quickly drifted off to sleep.

The following days were the same as the first, exhausting but strengthening. As the days turned into weeks, Katrina and I continued to get closer, strengthening the bond we had. Katrina's dragon continued to grow as well. By the end of the first month Katrina's dragon was to large to hold and carry around.

It was a free day today and Katrina and I were walking around the island with our hands intertwined and her dragon following us like a huge dog. "You know, it was about this time that Blugun first spoke to me." I said to Katrina. "It is highly possible that your dragon will soon talk to you as well."

"You really think so?" Katrina asked me. Then she turned her sparkling blue eyes to her dragon and I felt them swap thoughts in a short conversation. "Doesn't look like its ready to do so." Katrina said with disappointment. "It is still just showing me images, smells and sounds.

"Don't worry." I said to Katrina. "Give it time. Good things come to those who wait."

Katrina sighed and asked me "Where do you keep learning all of these strange metaphors? Are you hanging out with some strange people again?"

"Hey, I never hang out with strange people." I said to Katrina. I looked down to her and noticed that she was smiled and stifling a giggle. She was just joking with me. "Got me again." I said to her. This time she didn't restrain her giggle and it escaped her lips.

"What do you want to do today?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina looked up into the bright blue sky and said to me "Lets have a picnic."

I nodded and said "It has been a while since we last had a picnic. Do you want to get the food this time or shall I?" I asked Katrina.

"You get the food. Last time I got it we had some old cheese and it wasn't very good. The bread was also a bit stale." Katrina said to me.

"Okay. I'll go and get the food and you get the blanket." I said to Katrina as we released each other's hand. "Usual spot or do you want to go to the new one?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina thought it over and then she said to me "Usual one." I nodded and then she hurried off to grab a blanket from one of our rooms. I went to the eating hall and knocked on the kitchen door. Holga the dwarf, the dwarf woman who gave me food and drinks every time Katrina and I went on a picnic, answered the door and she smiled up at me.

"It is good to see you again, Josh. Been quite some time, huh?" Holga said to me.

I smiled and nodded. "It is good to see you to, Holga."

Holga looked me over and then she asked me "You going on another picnic?" I chuckled and nodded. "You and Katrina have been getting pretty close, huh?"

"I guess so." I said to Holga. "You think you can get me some fruit and drinks?"

Holga chuckled and then she said "Sure. Be right back." I didn't wait long before Holga came back carrying a wicker basket. "Here you go, Josh. Say hi to Katrina for me." Then Holga went into the kitchen before I had a chance to thank her.

I hurried to the clearing in the forest that Katrina and I always used for our picnics. Katrina was already there and she was laying out a large red blanket on the soft ground. I hurried to her side and helped her with the blanket. Once it was laid out, I set down the basket in the center of the blanket and then I sat down on the blanket, then Katrina sat down next to me.

I reached into the basket and pulled out a medium sized canvas bag. I opened it and saw that it was full of blue berries. Katrina and I then started to feed each other the blue berries. Afterwards I reached into the basket again and this time I pulled out a tall bottle of dark liquid. I pulled the cork out and smelled the liquid. It was some kind of fruit juice. I went into the basket again and pulled out two tall metal cups that were shaped like champagne glasses.

I handed one of the metal cups to Katrina and then I filled it up with the juice, then I filled my own cup. We clinked together our cups and then started to drink the juice. It was surprisingly sweet.

Katrina and I relaxed in the clearing, drinking our juice and watching the clouds pass over head. We stayed like that for the next hour, enjoying each other's company and the bottle of juice that never seemed to empty.

Katrina's dragon landed in front of us, disturbing the quiet serenity of the clearing. I felt an exchange of thoughts go from Katrina to her dragon. Katrina's eyes slowly widened, as did her smile. Once they were done thinking to each other Katrina turned to me and said "She spoke to me."

"Awesome." I said to Katrina. Then I turned to the dragon and told her "Congratulations. Do you mind if I join our minds?"

I felt the female dragon touch my mind and then I opened up for her and we joined our minds. _It is nice to finally speak with you, Josh._

_Your grammar is excellent. _I said to the dragon. _Especially for one so young. Did someone teach you?_

She nodded her head and then she said to me _You did. As well as everyone else that spoke around me. I memorized the way you and everyone around me said everything. I've been practicing in private for the past couple weeks._

I smiled at her and said to her _You sound great. Have you and Katrina decided on a name for you?_

The dragon shook her head while she said _Sadly, no. I have a few in mind but I have only just shown Katrina that I can talk so we obviously haven't talked all that much. _She said to me.

_What names di you have in mind? _Katrina asked her dragon.

_Sencil, Bonzen and Frena._ She told us.

_Which one do you like the best? _Katrina asked her dragon. _Your name is completely up to you. You are the one who has to bear it, not me._

_I honestly don't know which one I like the most. Plus, there are so many other great names but I just can't choose one._

I was about to comment but I suddenly felt a great mind wash over me and so I closed my mind up and looked over to Katrina and her dragon and saw looks of complete concentration on their faces. The mind was not attacking though, and after a few seconds I recognized it as Eragon's mind.

I opened up my mind and Eragon entered and asked me _Can you please tell Katrina to open her mind so that I can talk to her?_

_Yes, Ebrithil. _I said to Eragon. I looked over to Katrina and said to her "The mind is Eragon's. He wishes to speak with you."

Katrina's eyes opened wide and then she opened her mind to her uncle. While the two of them talked, I walked over to Katrina's dragon carrying the bottle of juice.

"Do you want some of this juice?" I asked the dragon as I held up the large bottle.

She nodded her large head and then opened her mouth a bit. I tipped the bottle until a stream of the dark liquid flowed from the bottle. I stopped pouring after five seconds and then the dragon swallowed the mouthful of liquid.

The dragon connected with my mind and said _It is very sweet. May I have more? _I nodded and then I tipped the bottle into her mouth again, letting the juice flow.

"Thrysta!" Katrina yelled and with a sudden magical force the bottle was blown out of my hand and into a nearby tree. I looked to Katrina and saw that she was trembling.

"Katrina, what's the matter?" I asked Katrina as I knelt beside her.

"The juice," Katrina said to me, her voice wavering, "It was poisoned."

"How?" I asked her.

Katrina shook her head and said "I don't know. Uncle Eragon was talking to me and he felt something in my mind. He went through my memories of the past day and saw that the only things I had eaten and drank were the berries and the juice. He asked me about whether or not they tasted of smelt str. . ." Katrina froze mid word, then before I could react she started to collapse. I quickly caught her before she fell to the ground. As I went through my mind, looking for a spell that would counteract the poison I suddenly felt weak and started to fall as well. I shifted my weight at the last second and fell on to the ground instead of on top of Katrina.

I sensed Katrina's dragon walk up to us and nudge us with her snout. I felt that she was trying to talk to us with her mind but I couldn't hear her. Slowly, I also felt her mind fade away from inside mine, even though I could feel her still pushing at me. Vaguely, I felt with my mind a group of people coming towards us but my vision went black before I could see them. My mind soon went black as well.

**Blugun**

Something felt wrong but Blugun couldn't figure out what it was. He raised his head from where it laid next to Amethi's, waking her from her peaceful sleep.

"What's wrong?" Amethi asked Blugun in the language of the dragons which when heard by anybody other than a dragon was nothing more than growls and grunts.

"I don't know." Blugun replied. Blugun stood up and sent out his mind, searching for his rider. Blugun's search was in vain. "I think something has happened to Josh. I must go and find him."

"How do you know something happened to him?" Amethi asked the dark blue dragon.

Blugun shook his head and said "I can't explain it. I just feel that something is wrong, very, very wrong." Blugun leapt from the cave that was Amethi's home and snapped open his wings to catch the wind as it blew. The wind carried him to where he felt the source of the bad feeling was.

Blugun shot through the sky with Amethi following closely behind him. The two dragons quickly flew through the sky, searching for Josh. With Blugun's mind thrown out far, he could feel all the different living things around him, but he couldn't find Josh. Just when Blugun was about to give up hope and go to Eragon for help, he felt a very faint flicker of life far ahead of him. It was Josh, and right next to him Blugun could sense Katrina whose life was even weaker than Josh's. Around Josh and Katrina Blugun could sense a gathering of people and strong magic at work.

Blugun sped up even faster, reaching his full speed. To anyone looking up, all they would see as Blugun flew over them was a blue blur and then a purple blur as Amethi followed.

When Blugun was above the clearing where Josh and Katrina were, Blugun stopped in the air and looked down. What Blugun saw would forever be in Blugun's mind. He saw Josh and Katrina lying on the ground with a blanket underneath them. Both were unconscious and surrounding them, reaching taller than any human should ever be, was human shaped shadows and they were slowly advancing on his rider.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello reader. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

I awoke in a dimly lit room. I looked around to try and figure out where I was. The room was practically barren; there was the bed I was currently lying in, a few chairs, a wooden door was set into the wall across the room, a small table beside my bed that held a few lit candles on it and then near my bed was another bed and it held another sleeping figure. After close scrutiny, I could see that it was Katrina.

I tried to get up but I was barely able to move. I tried sending out my mind but for some reason I couldn't. I then tried to use magic but saw that I couldn't do that either. I tried to call out for Katrina but my throat was so dry I could hardly make a sound.

I looked around for something to drink and found none.

Once more I attempted to get up and this time I managed to sit up. I leaned over towards Katrina's bed and tried to wake her but once I was close enough to reach the edge of her bed my strength left me and I fell out of my own bed.

The sound of my scaled arm hitting the hard stone floor reverberated around the room. The sound must have woken up Katrina because I heard the sound of cloth rustling above me, accompanied by a muffled groan and a few coughs.

I looked up and saw that Katrina's hand was hanging off of the side of her bed. I reached up and grabbed the hand and I felt it jerk from fright.

"Katrina." I called hoarsely up to her. "Where are we?"

Katrina moved around until she looked over the edge of her bed until she saw me down on the ground. She tried to speak and then once she saw that she couldn't she just shook her head, causing her red hair to fly around her head.

I tried to stand up but only managed to sit up before I lost my energy again.

Katrina and I just sat together for a while, building up our strength, constantly testing whether or not we were capable of using our magic yet and always finding out that we couldn't.

I then remembered about my ring and all the energy I had stored in it as well as the pommel of my sword. I looked around for either of them but couldn't find my ring or my sword.

I continued to sit for a while in the silence, holding on to Katrina's hand.

After a while, I heard footsteps outside the door that was on the other side of the room. I looked over to it and noticed that the sound was getting closer.

I attempted to stand up once more and this time I succeeded. I leaned against the wall for support and waited until whoever was outside the door to enter. The door opened slowly on creaky hinges and in walked a female elf wearing a white apron over a set of healer robes.

She screamed when she saw me, making Katrina and I jump from fright, then she hurried to my side and said "You must get back in bed, Josh. You will never get better of you do not rest."

The elf pushed me down into my bed, I was to weak to fight her back, and as she was pulling the blankets up to my chest I could hear several sets of feet hurrying toward the door. Several people entered the room but I couldn't see who they were because the nurse was blocking my view.

"Is Josh alright?" a voice asked. I recognized the voice instantly. It was Manny.

The nurse answered before I could say anything. "He is awake, but he needs his rest. If you wish to speak to him, do not stay long." Then the nurse moved out of my field of vision and I was finally able to see Manny and Claire. Behind them Eragon stood as well as a few other people I did not know.

"What happened?" Claire asked me.

I had no idea so I shook my head. Eragon stepped forward and answered Claire's question for me.

"He drank a poison that was supplied to him by the dwarf in your eating hall. She has apparently been undercover for the past thirteen years." Eragon told us. "She has been working for the group that has been trying to annihilate me and the entire rider organization."

"Why would anybody want to do that?" Manny asked Eragon.

Eragon sighed and then he said "Because I am the one who killed their leader, Galbatorix. Though it was centuries ago, they are still trying to kill me and any other riders except for the ones that they control."

"How many riders work for them? And who are they?" Claire asked Eragon.

"I have no idea and there is no way to figure out. Me and a few of the other Elder Riders call them the Dark Riders." Eragon said to us. "Every time I try to send someone in undercover they get killed. I'm guessing that the Dark Riders have people who are incredibly skilled in infiltrating minds. Because of their mind breakers I have lost so many riders and dragons, as well as friends."

"Is there any way that you can send someone in without them knowing?" I asked Eragon.

Eragon shook his head and said "There is no way I can send in an undercover rider without the Dark Riders knowing."

This time I shook my head. "I meant the rider you are sending in." I said to Eragon. "Is there any way to send in an undercover rider without the rider knowing they are undercover?"

As it dawned on Eragon, a smile grew on his face. "You are truly a genius, Josh." Eragon went silent for a few seconds and then he focused again. "Your idea has been sent to the Elder Riders for judgment. Thank you for the amazing idea."

I nodded and then Eragon turned towards Katrina. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.

Katrina, after coughing a couple times, said to Eragon in a rough voice "I'm feeling decent. But, I'm pretty tired. How did you guys find Josh and I?"

Eragon's smile faded quickly faded.

"It was not a pretty sight when we got there." Eragon said to Katrina. "You can thank your dragon for us finding you so quickly. She saw that you two were in trouble so she flew to us and brought us to you; where a terrible battle was raging on."

"Blugun and Amethi were fighting off a horde of shadows to protect you two." Eragon told us.

Manny interrupted Eragon and said "What do you mean shadows?"

Eragon looked over to Mando and said "The shadows are a favorite type of magic that has been created by the Dark Riders. They have been using it for the past three centuries." Eragon said to us. "I have outlawed the use of the shadow magic because a blood sacrifice must be used in order to create a shadow."

"Shadows, just like everything else, have a weakness." Eragon said to us. "So far, we have only been able to find one. It is a simple spell, and just about anybody can learn it. Eldrvarya garjzla, burning light. The weakness of the shadows is light."

"It is thanks to this spell that you two are still alive." Eragon said to us. "The same goes for Blugun and Amethi. They were there before us and were barely holding off the shadows."

"It is thanks to them that you two were still alive when we got there so you two had better thank Blugun and Amethi. Dragon fire may not be a weakness to shadows, but it is still a decent weapon to use on them."

"Once we got there, we quickly started to use burning light on the shadows and their numbers were quickly dwindled down to zero." Eragon told us. "As soon as every one of them was defeated, we quickly moved in and got you two out of there. There is currently several healers working on Blugun and Amethi."

"What happened to them?" I quickly asked Eragon.

Eragon looked over to me and said "Shadows are poisonous to dragons. Their touch sends their dark magic into the very soul of the dragon and then it slowly kills the dragon from the inside out." Eragon told us.

"Throughout all the years we have fought the shadows, we have lost many dragon and riders. It took us quite a while, but we eventually managed to create an antidote for the poison." One of the people I didn't know said to me. "It is slow acting and it leaves the dragon weak, but they will eventually fight once more."

"So that means that Blugun and Amethi will be alright?" I asked the man. He nodded to me. "Thank you, Sir." I yawned then, and so did Katrina.

The nurse noticed the yawns that Katrina and I had let out and said to everybody in the room "Alright everyone, time to leave. Josh and Katrina need their rest."

There was a bit of groaning from everybody as they left the room. The nurse brought Katrina and I some glasses of water and some food and after we ate and drank we quickly fell asleep. The next day was full of eating and sleeping, the same for the next several days.

Once Katrina and I were able to walk once more without help, we accompanied the nurse to a room that was full of exercise equipment. Several large windows were on each side of the huge room and outside the window we could see a great view of Vroengard.

Eragon was waiting in the room for us as well as several other people.

Eragon stood from where he was seated and walked over to us. "Good morning, Josh and Katrina." Eragon said to us. "The reason why you are here is so you can re-work the muscles that were weakened from the poison."

"So is that why were so weak when we first woke up?" Katrina asked Eragon. Eragon nodded and then Katrina asked him "Is that also why we still can't use our magic or even send out our mind?" Again he nodded.

"Katrina, Josh, the side effects of the poison should only last for about two weeks for you two. We feared that because of your arm, Josh, that the shadows would be able to poison you like they poison the dragons." Eragon said to me. "Thankfully, that did not happen. The both of you should make a full recovery. For now, I suggest that you start working those muscles so that you may fight once more."

An elf woman with silver hair and a muscled body covered in tight fitting clothing came up to us and said "My name is Univa; I will be the one to instruct you on your road to recovery."

"When do we begin?" I asked her.

Univa smiled and then she said "Now."

The rest of the day was full of exercise and exhaustion. We started by simply walking a few laps around the room. For any of the other riders, walking around a room would have been the exercise of a child, but for Katrina and I it was absolutely horrible. Our muscles burned, our throats were parched from breathing so hard and sweat was dripping from our brows.

After the walking, we started to lift a bar that had a small amount of weight on each side. As I lifted the bar, I remembered back when I was capable of carrying a deer on my shoulders. I sighed and then got back to my exercising. By the end of the day, Katrina and I were both drenched in sweat.

Now that Katrina and I were well enough to start exercising we were well enough to no longer be in the infirmary. We now each had our own room and we gratefully sank into the soft mattress and blankets that covered the rough wood frame.

I quickly fell asleep and when I woke up it was to the nurse checking up on me.

"Just checking your heart rate." She said to me.

I nodded and let her do her job, and once she was done I went back to sleep.

The nurse quickly left the room and went down the hall, taking countless turns that would have confused any followers. When she reached a dead end, she muttered a spell and the wall at the end of the hallway melted away to reveal another narrow hallway.

The nurse walked into the hallway and the wall melted back to form a solid barrier. The nurse walked through the hallway until she reached a narrow stairway that led down, deep into the earth.

After several minutes she reached the bottom of the stairs and in front of her was a heavy metal door. The nurse muttered the password and the door swung silently open, revealing a wide room with a low ceiling.

The room was lit with candles that were placed all throughout the room. At least a hundred tables filled the room, and there were countless people that filled the room. Around each table were large numbers of people.

Messengers were scurrying all throughout the room, going from table to table, relaying information. The nurse walked over to the far side of the room and went through a wooden door that was set deep into the rock that the room was dug out of.

The nurse followed many hallways and went through many doors until she reached another thick metal door. She spoke another password and then the door swung open to reveal a small room with a heavy table and several chairs around it. In all but one chair there was a person wearing dark robes and each bore a ring with an ancient crest carved into the ruby that adorned the ring.

The nurse walked over to the one chair that did not hold a person and she sat down. As she touched the seat, her clothes changed to match those of the men and women around her. Then out of her pocket she pulled out a ring to match that those of the others.

"Grendin, what did you find out about the rider?" the man at the head of the table asked the false nurse.

Grendin shook her head and said "Nothing. He awoke before I could obtain any information from his mind. As soon as I touched it he woke up and then I had to pretend that I was checking on him."

The man ground his teeth in frustration. "Somehow his mind is still combatting the drug we keep putting in his food. We must obtain Eragon's secrets before Josh realizes what is going on. What of Katrina? How goes your search for her?"

"Still nothing, Santhro. The fake Katrina is still fooling Josh. He has not yet realized that he is not on Vroengard." A man with a bald head and a thin goatee on his chin answered. "We still have not yet figured out how Katrina escaped us. We still have men searching the entire compound for the girl."

Santhro nodded and then asked one of the other women, this one with blond hair and green eyes, "How are our spies doing on Vroengard?"

The woman answered "All of them are still completely hidden from view. Our undercover agents also remain undiscovered."

"That is good to hear. At least one thing is going right." Santhro said to the room of people. "Is Josh still believing the lies we told him of the battle? Is he questioning anything?"

Grendin shook her head and said "No, he questions nothing. He is still as gullible as ever. Especially when it comes from his leader, Eragon." The woman said with a sinister laugh.

The group of people all laughed as well. Santhro nodded and then he said "As long as Josh sees that it is Eragon giving him information, then he will believe anything." As Santhro laughed, his form shifted into that of Eragon.

As the laughter died down, Santhro's form shifted back to normal. "Well, my fellow councilmen, I believe it is time for breakfast. Be sure to invite Josh and Katrina. I think it is time to go into phase two of the plan."

Back on the true Vroengard, a different conference was going on.

"Why the hell not?!" yelled one of the Elder Riders.

"You know why we can't just leave them there." Eragon told the man. "They know very important secrets of the riders and the Dark Riders have very powerful spell casters that excel in mind breaking. As we speak Josh and Katrina could be in mortal danger."

"That is true, but we don't have any idea where to send soldiers to get them back." Another of the Elder Riders said. "We must wait for the scouts to return with information."

"Yes, I know that." Eragon said to him. Before anything else could be said, the doors to the large meeting room were thrown open and in rushed Mando and Claire, as well as several people who were trying to hold them back.

"Ebrithil, please let us leave so we may search for Josh and Katrina." Claire yelled out. She had to yell because of all of the people who were yelling for the two young riders to be taken out of the room.

Eragon made a motion with his hand and suddenly the entire room went silent. The guards all backed away from Manny and Claire and then Manny repeated Claire's question. "Please let us search for our friends."

Eragon shook his head. Before either of the young riders could protest, Eragon told them "We currently have very many scouts out looking for Josh and Katrina. You two could not possibly make a difference."

Manny then said to Eragon "Just like how a single grain of rice can tip the scale, a single person could change the tide of a war."

Eragon sighed and then he said to Manny "That may be true, but there is still no way that I am going to let you two leave the island. It is simply far to dangerous to send you to our there alone."

"We will not be alone." Claire quickly said. "We will have Luna, Wendur, Blugun and Amethi with us as well."

"Four dragons and two riders are not enough to fight the army that the enemy wields. My answer to your question stands as is, and it shall not change. I have already set up a barrier around the entire island to prevent anybody from leaving or returning without permission. You shall not leave this island. Return to your rooms."

The guards then pushed Manny and Claire out of the room and led them to their own rooms.

While Manny and Claire were getting escorted, Blugun and Amethi were sitting in a cave with their sobbing daughter.

"There was nothing you could have possibly done." Blugun said in the growls and roars of the dragon language. His daughter continued to cry.

"Please listen, little one." Amethi said to her child. "You must see that if you had tried to fight instead of flying to get help then you would have been taken away as well, if not taken then killed."

"But Katrina was my rider!" the little dragon cried out. "I should have protected her!" the dragon then cried even harder while her parents tried to consolidate her.

Again Blugun and Amethi tried to console their child but it was to no avail. "Daddy, how can you just sit there and say that it wasn't my fault?!" the little dragon asked her father. "I ran away when I should have protected Katrina!"

"You did not run away." Amethi said to her daughter. "You went and got help. That was the smart thing to do, little one. You are not to blame."

The little dragon said nothing, she just continued to cry.

**Sorry about the length of this chapter. about half way through this chapter i got hit by a serious case of writer's block. Please review and half a nice day.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello readers. Sorry about not updating yesterday at my usual time. My dumbass of a roommate was moving some stuff around and dropped my laptop onto the corner edge of our desk. The fucking screen shattered and so he had to buy me a new one, but he wasn't able to go to the store until this morning.**

**Well, I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

I was awoken by the sound of someone knocking gently on my door. I stood up from my bed and stretched, and then I went over to my door and opened it. There was an Urgal standing there.

"I have come on behalf of Eragon." The Urgal said to me. "He wishes for you to come to breakfast and eat with him. Do you accept the invitation?"

"Yes I do." I said to the Urgal. "Will you be leading me the way there?" I asked him. He nodded and then I said "I will be out in a few minutes. I must first get dressed." The Urgal nodded again and then I closed the door and went over to the closet that held the clothes that I had been given to wear.

I pulled on a pair of brown linen pants and a white tunic. Then I brushed my shaggy hair into place with my fingers and slipped on my boots. I then went over to the door and opened it. The Urgal looked me over.

"Are you really going to eat with Eragon without shaving?" the Urgal asked me.

I rubbed my chin and was surprised to feel that it was mostly covered in rough hair. "I didn't know that I needed to shave so badly. Are you able to use magic?" I asked the Urgal.

The Urgal nodded and then asked me "Do you want me to shave it off for you?" I nodded and then he muttered a quick spell. I felt all of the hair leave my chin as well as on my jawline.

"Thanks." I asked to the Urgal as I rubbed my now hairless face. "After breakfast, is there someplace that I can go so that I can get my hair cut?"

The Urgal started leading the way to the breakfast with Eragon as he told me "Yes, there is a place for you to get your hair cut. I shall show you to it once you are finished eating."

"Thank you." I said to the Urgal. We walked the rest of the way in silence. Once we got to the room where I was going to be eating with Eragon, the Urgal stopped outside the door.

"I will be waiting out here once you are finished." The Urgal said to me.

"Thank you." I said to the Urgal before I walked into the room.

The room was very simple. A large table filled the square room, around the table was a large number of chairs and almost all of them were filled.

Eragon was at the head of the table, a man and a woman I didn't know were sitting on each side of him. Mando was sitting at the table, as was Claire and Katrina. I sat down next to Katrina and while I was sitting a young female Urgal came into the room and sat across from the table from me.

"Now that everybody is here, lets get started on breakfast." Eragon said to all of us. He clapped his hands twice and then from out of the door I had entered in through came four servants in crisp white aprons, each of them carrying a large silver platter with a lid.

The servants set the platters in the center of the table and then all at once they took off the lids to the platters, revealing steaming piles of vegetables, fresh fruits, and for the Urgal, a large slab of meat that was cooked until it was well done.

More servants entered the room and then all of them placed a plate and a fork in front of us all, as well as a tall empty glass which was soon filled with some fruit juice. The servants all put some food on to each of our plates and when my plate was filled with food I thanked the servant.

"Alright everybody, dig in." Eragon said before he started eating.

The breakfast was full of good food as well as good conversations. Although, throughout the entire breakfast, I kept feeling the eyes of the Urgal watching me. Every time I tried to start up a conversation with her, she would look away from me with a slight pink hue coming to her grey skin. When she did this, I would just turn towards Katrina and start talking with her and Manny and Claire.

After breakfast, I went to where the male Urgal was standing and once he saw me he said "Follow me." Then he led me to a room that had several chairs in it that people were all sitting in and getting their hair cut.

The Urgal told me to sit in a chair and eventually someone will come and cut my hair. I thanked the Urgal once more and then the Urgal left and I sat in a chair. I didn't have to wait long until a man came and asked me how I wanted it cut.

I told him I wanted my hair to be about three inches long and after about twelve seconds of casting a spell my hair was cut three inches from my scalp. I watched the hair drift down to the floor then I looked over to the barber and said to him "Thanks. Do I owe you anything?"

The man shook his head and said to me "No, nothing owed. Have a nice day."

I smiled at him and said "You too." I then got up from the chair and went over to the door and left the door where the Urgal was still waiting for me. "Do you know what I'm supposed to be doing at the moment?" I asked the Urgal.

He nodded his large horned head and said "You may go where you please. Today you may just relax and have fun. Sadly, with your current condition you are unable to leave the pavilion so we have a room set up for you. Would you like for me to escort you there?"

"That would be great." I said to the Urgal. He nodded and then led the way through many different turns and hallways, as well as a few staircases until we reached a room with a metal door set into a thick wall.

The Urgal opened the door and then he led the way inside to the room.

The Urgal cast a spell and the dark room was lit up as if a miniature sun was suddenly lit in the room. The room was suddenly full of little growls and roars as the baby dragons that slept in the room all woke up.

Inside the room was at least seven baby dragons all lying on a plush cushion. Around them was all kinds of toys for the dragons to play with; rubber balls, some random shaped pieces of rubber for them to chew on, some little round leather balls that were rocking back and forth slightly. One of the waking dragons bumped one of the leather balls and it suddenly shot off to the other side of the room.

Several pairs of dragon eyes watched as the ball bounced off of the wall and hit the opposite wall. The ball continued to bounce all over the room and it wasn't long before all eyes were on the ball as it shot all over the place.

The ball hit the wall in front of me and then bounced in my direction, catching it quickly with my draconian hand. The little dragons started roaring and growling and jumping around in excitement. Before I had a chance to ask, the Urgal explained the ball to me.

"The leather ball has been enchanted to bounce forever unless someone or something catches it." The Urgal said to me. "It is meant to teach the young dragons how to move quickly to catch their prey. So far, none of the hatchlings have been able to catch the ball and so by catching it so soon and easily, you have gained their respect."

I smiled and said "Cool." Several of the dragons came over to me and started sniffing me. I knelt down and held my hand out to them to smell. As their snouts touched my scales I felt a slight shock, and then I felt my mind start to open. As more dragons touched me, I felt my mind start to open. I suddenly felt another mind slip into mine, but something kept it out. I could barely sense the direction of the mind; it was coming from the Urgal.

Within my mind and the barrier that was keeping out the Urgal, there was another mind, but this one didn't feel like a threat. I tried to expand my mind, but I didn't have enough control yet. I continued to stroke the backs of the baby dragons and the longer I was in contact with them the more control I regained.

As my control slowly grew, I started to barely hear a voice speaking within my mind. At first it was fuzzy, but finally I started to understand the words, as well as recognize the voice.

_Josh, can you hear me? Please hear my voice. _The voice of Katrina said within my mind.

_I can hear you._ I said to Katrina.

_Finally. I have been trying to speak to you for days._ Katrina told me.

_Where are you? _I asked Katrina.

After a few seconds Katrina said to me _I'm hiding, Josh. You have been tricked into believing that this is Vroengard. We are in Alagaesia, near the capitol of Surda. I barely managed to escape our enemies, but not before I was already in their main building. They have been searching for me for the past three weeks._

_How have you survived all this time? _I asked Katrina.

_I am hidden among the servants. I changed my hair color to black and I made my ears pointed. It took me a while to do that but now I resemble an elf. Josh, we must get out of here before they discover me._

_Why? Why have we been brought here? _I asked Katrina.

_Because we know great secrets of the riders. We are a couple of the best captives that they can have, you are one of the favorite riders of Eragon and I am of his blood. The riders will do almost anything that they can to get us back._

I thought for several seconds and then I remembered about how just that morning I had breakfast with Eragon, Claire, Manny and Katrina. _But this morning I had breakfast with you and Eragon. As well as Mando and Claire. How is that possible?_

_Josh, you were tricked! How many times must I say that? _Katrina asked me. _The people here used a spell on themselves to morph their form into the form of others. We must leave, Josh! Are you able to use your magic?_

I looked over to where one of the dragons were running around behind me. As I watched the dragonling, I glanced up at the Urgal and noticed that he was watching me intently.

_I don't think that I would be safe for me to try. There is an Urgal watching me. _I said to Katrina.

_I know. I have his mind under my control. He has a lot of magical energy but he is weak of mind. I am easily blocking his senses from any kind of magic you use. Use a simple spell, one that doesn't move anything. Use one that will make a small patch of air in front of you shimmer. I am only blocking his magic sense, not his sight so keep the magic hidden._

_Got it. _I said to Katrina. I put together a couple of simple words and then attempted to tap into my magic. The flow was weak but I could access it. I muttered the words and the air in front of me shimmered slightly and I quickly ended the spell. _Katrina, I can use magic again. It's weak, but I can use it._

_Great. That means that we can finally escape. We can't wait for you to gain more strength. I will put the Urgal to sleep and then the dragons. Take the energy away from them, but do not kill them._

After a few seconds the Urgal fell to the floor, and then all of the dragons that were around me fell to the ground as well. I did as Katrina had suggested. I took as much energy from the Urgal and dragonlings as I could and as I drained the Urgal I noticed that the spell he had cast to light the room was still draining his energy.

I looked around the room at the sleeping dragonlings and wished with all my heart that I could take them with me. Then I went into the Urgal's mind and canceled the spell. The room was suddenly pitch black and I had to carefully walk out of the room to keep from stepping on the sleeping dragons.

_Over the weeks I have grown to know this pavilion. I have almost every hallway and staircase memorized. I shall guide your way out. Take a left and then skip the next turn and take another left._

I did as Katrina said and followed her directions. _Good job, now at the next turn take a right and then head down the staircase._

_Got it. _I said to Katrina as I turned right and started walking down the narrow staircase. _Where are you? _I asked Katrina.

_I am on the first floor. You are on the fifth. I am guiding you towards me so do not stray from the path I am telling you. _Katrina said to me.

_Got it. _I said to Katrina as I reached the bottom of the staircase with a hallway directly in front of me and a left turn at the base of the stairs. _Now which way?_

_Go forward and then turn right and then take a left. _Katrina said to me.

I followed the directions that Katrina gave me and as I walked I asked Katrina _What is the spell you used to change your hair color. I might be spotted and it is highly possible that I will be recognized so it would be best if I change my hair color as well._

_Nice thinking. _Katrina told me. She told me three words of the ancient language and I quickly used them, turning my black hair brown. I then looked over my clothes and altered the spell a little to change the color of my clothes as well.

Then I looked down at my right arm, and the black scales that covered it and the ivory claws that extended from my fingertips. I then had to really rework the spell to not only affect color but shape as well.

When I was done, I was looking at a normal, human arm. But when I ran my hand over it I could feel the spots were the scales were pushed down into the skin and then colored to look like skin. As long as nobody felt it, the disguise would work.

I continued walking until I heard footsteps. I sent out my mind and when I touched the minds of the people near me they did not react. I could feel no magical power in their minds and there was no intent of harm. I continued walking and as I reached the next turn I was supposed to take I saw a couple of servant girls walking through the hallway towards me.

I calmly continued walking and the girls didn't bother me, they just continued walking and talking. _At the next turning take a right and then ignore the first left turn and then take the second one. _Katrina told me.

I sent her confirmation and then followed her directions. We continued this plan for the next half hour. The only reason why it took so long is because of how there had been one of the leaders walking down the next turning I was supposed to take and so I had had to take a different route and ended up in a section of the pavilion that Katrina didn't know so I had to retrace my steps until I found the correct hallway.

Once I was finally on the bottom floor, Katrina told me to wait for her in a room that was used for storage. After about ten minutes the door opened up and a very familiar voice called out for me.

"Josh, it's me, Katrina." Then a dark form passed through the doorway and into the lightless room. The door was quickly closed behind Katrina and I then used a small spell to bring us some light. In the dull glow of the light I could see someone who very closely resembled Katrina.

The ears were pointed and her hair was black. The only way how I knew that this was Katrina was her eyes. They were still the same intense blue that I loved. On the other Katrina the eyes had been dull, lifeless. It had worried me but I hadn't bothered her for fear of upsetting her.

"Who are you and why is your mind the same is Josh's?" Katrina asked me.

"Katrina, it's me." I said to her. She shook her head and pointed at my regular looking right arm.

"Josh has a very unique arm. You are not him." Katrina said to me.

I looked down at my arm and then I held it up and ended the spell that kept it cloaked. "It's me, Katrina."

Katrina muttered a spell and suddenly Katrina was back to her old self. Same beautiful red hair, rounded ears, and her eyes absolutely shined in the dull light. I went over to Katrina and I wrapped my arms around her. Katrina did the same to me and then we locked lips and kissed for a good ten seconds.

"I missed you so much." Katrina said to me when our kiss broke.

I kissed her on her forehead. "I missed you as well. I say we get out of here. What do you think about that idea?" I asked Katrina.

"That is the best idea you have ever had. Much better than your idea to go swimming past lights out." I remembered that night with a chuckle.

"We got in so much trouble for that." I said as I held Katrina closer.

"But it was so worth it." Katrina said to me as she snuggled into my chest. I agreed as I also remembered all the fun we had. "Oh, I almost forgot." Katrina said as she suddenly started digging into her pockets, searching for something.

She eventually pulled out a small metal object and I was delighted to see that it was my ring. I slid it onto my finger and then I enveloped Katrina into another hug. "Thank you, Katrina." I said to her before kissing her on her forehead again. Katrina looked up at me and then we kissed once more. I dipped my mind into the ring and then drew out a little of the vast power that I had stored in the gem. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I felt myself fill with energy and the last of the fog that covered my mind blow away.

"You ready to get out of here?" Katrina asked me. I nodded. "Good. Let's go." Again Katrina mumbled her spell and her features changed once more. I did the same for my arm.

Katrina led the way out of the room and then through several hallways and through doors until we finally reached outside. I had expected the air to smell fresh and clean, but I was dead wrong. The air was filthy and full of smoke.

I looked around for the source of the smoke and saw a large number of servants gathering up the fallen leaves and then burning them.

Under the cover of the large cloud of smoke we easily snuck across the large yard. Once we reached a tall wall Katrina said to me "We will have to use magic to get over this wall. The people here have a spell on the wall. It is weak, so we should be able to easily break through it. As soon as we break through the spell the caster will know and then everyone in the entire pavilion will know that we have escaped."

"As soon as we touch the ground on the other side, use magic to make yourself as fast as you can. Do you know any spells that will do that?" Katrina asked me.

I nodded and said "Thrysta."

Katrina looked at me weird and then said to me "That means thrust. A thrust is nothing more than a quick stab. How can you use that to go for a long distance?"

I shook my head at her and told her "You are always forgetting something very important about magic." Again she looked at me weird. "Magic is not only limited to what words you not know, but also your imagination. We merely have to imagine what we what to happen, think about something that is even remotely the same and we can do what we want. If I want a drink of water, then I can simply say vindir, which means air." I said to Katrina.

"By saying vindir I am gaining power over the air and the air has water in it so I can then concentrate on the water that is in the air and make a ball of it and then drink." I tapped into my magic and then said vindir and did as I had said. I concentrated on the water in the air and made it all condense into one place and it slowly formed a ball of water. I then drank the water and smiled at Katrina.

"We spell casters need to have an imagination as well as a vast vocabulary. Without one then we are weak, doesn't matter which. You can have the most vivid imagination in the world and have a small knowledge of the ancient language and the possibility of getting beaten in a magic battle is very high. The same goes if you have a strong vocabulary but little imagination."

Katrina nodded and said "I don't know how I am always forgetting that. You truly are a great rider, Josh. So, you ready to get out of here?"

Thin time I nodded and said "Let's do this."

In sync, we both said "Reisa." Then we both shot up and into the air. As Katrina had said, there was a barrier, but we quickly broke through and then I said thrysta and Katrina said fram, which means forward. We both shot through the air, going so fast that the ground beneath us was a blur.

Through my connection with Katrina, I could feel her strength draining quickly. I flew closer to her, gripped her hand and then sent energy into her. Katrina thanked me with a nod, and then we continued to fly through the air.

_According to maps that I saw while in the pavilion there is a tower nearby that they have three riders stationed at. We will have no choice but to just fly past and hope that we are going to fast for them to catch up. _Katrina said to me from the confines of my mind.

I nodded to her and then I put on more speed, and so did Katrina. Again, I gave her more energy. After about ten seconds, I saw a tower rapidly getting closer. Katrina and I flew past it, putting on another burst of speed.

_Do you know where we are? _I asked Katrina.

_We are near the capitol of Surda. We have a long flight ahead of us._

_Do you know where we are supposed to be going? _I asked Katrina.

In response, she sent me a memory of a large map that was pinned to the wall of a large room made of stone. Then she sent me a close up view of where the pavilion was on the map. The pavilion was depicted on the map with a castle painted on the map. Then Katrina started moving the memory, following where we currently were, and said to me _We are in the quickly getting away, but I fear we are not quick enough. We will have to hide in a city nearby._

_The bigger the better. _I said to Katrina. _We obviously can't go to the capitol, that place will be crawling with their people. Where is the next biggest city?_

_Here._ Katrina said as she moved the memory in my mind to a large city called Drevon. It was still quite a ways away, but at the speed we were going we should make it there before night fall.

Katrina and I continued flying through the air until it was almost dark. As soon as the city came into view on the horizon, Katrina and I lowered ourselves down until we were barely above the trees below us.

We stopped for a few minutes in a copse of trees and while we were relieving our full bladders, I took energy from the trees around us until I was full of energy and I had stored a large amount in to my ring. The energy I got didn't completely restore all the energy we had used, it didn't even restore a forth of the energy we had used, but it should be enough to get us into the city and still have plenty to protect ourselves with.

I dug my mind into the earth beneath me, just like I had constantly done while we were on Vroengard. I had been searching for a gem to give to Katrina, that way she could have ring to store energy in. Once again, I found nothing but dirt and rock. But, as I was withdrawing my mind I felt a faint glimmer of something precious within the earth. I focused on it and drew it towards me. I focused on where the gem would rise from the ground and watched as a filthy object rose from the muddy ground.

I drew the mud coated gem closer to me and then I used a quick spell to make the mud slide of off the gem and as the mud slid off a watched as a chunk of an ice blue gem was uncovered. This was an ice sapphire. I remembered Eragon telling me about them and I remembered about how he had shown me the dragon egg shell of the same color.

I rolled the large chunk around in my palm and then I went over to a tree, restored my energy then called out some of the light colored wood. I made the chunk of wood into a slim strip of wood and then I molded it with a spell until it was in the shape of a ring. I then forced a small orb out of the ice sapphire and then I held the orb onto the wood ring and again I molded the wood until the gem had a dent in the wood to sit in. I held the orb down in the depression as I forced four slivers of wood up around the gem to help hold it in place.

I then cast several enchantments on the ring so that the gem would never fall out and that the ring would be difficult to break. I then held and hand against a tree and transferred the energy from the tree into the ring, then I did the same to several more trees, replenishing my own strength as well.

On the last tree I transferred the energy from, I saw that vines were circling the thick trunk. I then looked down at the ring I held in my hand. I cast another spell and then the wood of the ring started to rise up and form decorative vines around the gem.

Now that the ring had a decent amount of energy within it, I used the color changing spell Katrina had told me and changed the color of the wood into a shining silver color. I then sent out my mind to find Katrina and once I found her I went to her.

"You ready to go?" Katrina asked me.

"Yeah, but first I have something to give you." I said to Katrina. She looked curious and excited to be receiving a gift. I held out my closed fist and then I opened my hand and showed the ring to Katrina. Katrina gasped and then picked it up from my hand.

"It's beautiful, Josh." Katrina said as she gazed at the ring. "Where did you find this?"

I smiled at Katrina and then I said to her "I didn't find it. I made it, just a few minutes ago." Katrina looked up at me and then she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down into a kiss.

"Thank you, so much." Katrina said to me.

"You're welcome. The gem is an ice sapphire, and sadly I could find any real silver so the ring is really just made of wood that I colored silver. As soon as I find some real silver, I will switch the wood for the silver." I said to Katrina.

Katrina smiled and shook her head. "I like it better this way. The wood makes it much more unique." Katrina kissed my lips again and then she said to me "Thank you, Josh. Thank you so much."

Katrina then tried to slip the ring on but it was just a little to big. After I uttered a quick spell, the wood reshaped itself until it fit her left ring finger perfectly. Katrina held her hand up to the dying sunlight and said "So beautiful."

"You ready to go?" I asked Katrina.

She looked away from her ring and then she nodded. We uttered our spells and then we rose above the trees and then shot off in the direction of Drevon. After a few minutes of flying, we stopped at the final line of trees that stood between us and Drevon. From there, we went on foot.

We got past the guards with no problems, but from there it was nothing but problems. First, we were surrounded by beggars; and we actually had to beat them away with sticks we found by the side of the road. Then a small group of thieves tried to rob us, but we used our sticks to fight them all off. Then we had a large amount of trouble finding an inn and once we found one, we figured out that we couldn't rent a room because we had no money.

After we offered to work for the room, the owner grumbled with a woman for a few minutes and then he nodded to us. He reached underneath he counter and then came back up with a key. "Room seven. Rest up tonight and then tomorrow you work. My wife will bring up some food for you to." Then the man started to clean up mugs using an old rag.

"Thank you." I said to the man before heading up the stairs. Katrina thanked the man as well and then she followed me up the stairs.

I found room seven at the end of the hall on the second floor of the four story building. I unlocked the wooden door using the heavy metal key and then I swung the door open on silent hinges. Inside the room was two beds, both looked clean and had fresh white sheets on them and very soft looking white blankets. Beside each bed was a small table and on top of each of the tables was a small lantern with a box of matches next to it. Between the beds was a large window with a view of the courtyard behind the large building.

Within the courtyard was several tables for people to eat at, as well as a few archery targets for people to practice at. On the left side sat the stables and on the right was a set of clotheslines, each one with several white sheets on them.

I went over to one of the beds and collapsed in it, not bothering to get undressed or cover up. Katrina did the same with the other bed. I was almost asleep when I felt my bed shift and then something lie down on my shoulder. I cracked open my right eye and saw that Katrina was lying next to me. I wrapped her up in my arms and then the both of us fell asleep.

Neither of us woke up when the owner's wife walked in carrying a wooden platter with two plates of vegetables and meat on them as well as two wooden mugs full of juice.

The wife noticed how we were sleeping cuddled together. Then she silently set the food down on my bedside table and then she left the room and went downstairs where she told her husband about how the two of us had already been asleep and were both cuddled up to each.

"I think that they are runaways." The husband said to his wife as he served a mug of ale to one of his usual customers.

"It doesn't matter if they are runaways, Jerold. Those two need help and so that is what we are going to give them." The wife told her husband, Jerold.

"Wilma, you cannot help every single young couple who walks through those doors." Jerold said to Wilma, his wife.

"I am just repaying the kindness that we were once shown." Wilma said to Jerold before she went into the kitchen.

The old man sighed as he remembered that day. "Wilma, you have to much of a soft spot for kids." Jerold said to himself. "That's one of the reasons why I love you so much." Jerold smiled.

"Jerold, can I get another mug?" another of Jerold's regulars.

Jerold nodded, took the empty mug from the man and refilled it. When the man tried to pay, Jerold shook his head and then said "This mug is on the house. Enjoy your night."

"Thanks Jerold." The man said to him before walking away to his friends.

Jerold looked back to the door that led to the kitchen and said to himself, "Wilma, your softness is rubbing off."

"Good." Wilma said from behind Jerold. Jerold jumped from fright, then he whirled around and saw his wife standing there with a platter of food and a handful of mugs. She had a wide grin. Jerold grinned too. "Come on old man." Wilma said to her husband. "We have customers to tend to."

**Well , I hope you guys enjoyed chapter six. Please review and have nice day.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Here you go readers. Chapter seven is now up. I hope you enjoy reading it.**

"Where is he?!" Santhro screamed out at his council. "Where is Josh?"

The other members of the council cringed from the volume of his voice as it grated across their ears. "We do not know, sir." One of the men said to Santhro. "All we know is that he shot past the western watch tower. We believe that they are fleeing to Vroengard."

Santhro brought his fist down onto the table in anger. The table cracked and so did his hand. Several of his fingers were at odd angles. Barely a second later, the fingers all popped back into place and the bones all mended without Santhro uttering a single syllable.

"Find him. He has un-doubtfully escaped with Katrina. Muster together the fastest riders we have and send them out on a search. Find them both, or I shall find myself a new council." Then the man stormed out of the room, his red cloak billowing around him like a cloud made of blood.

Back in the inn, Katrina and I were discussing what we should do next.

"I say we stay here for a while." I said to Katrina. "It will give us both time to recover and get our thoughts straightened out."

After a few seconds, Katrina nodded her head. "The Dark Riders wouldn't expect us to remain in a city that is so close to their pavilion." Katrina then looked to the closed and locked door that kept out any unwanted people. "Do you think the owner would allow us to continue working off the money needed to sleep here?"

I thought it over for a few seconds and then I said "If he doesn't, then I'm sure that his wife will convince him." I sighed and scratched my head. "You ready to go downstairs?"

Katrina nodded at me and then I stood up and she did the same. I grabbed the tray that had held the food that the wife had given us that morning for breakfast. She had also brought up a couple of clean white aprons. Katrina and I were both wearing one and Katrina had her hair tied up into a bun. I had the sleeves of my tunic down around my wrists and Katrina had them rolled up to above her elbows.

I had to keep mine down because even though my arm looked normal, if you touched the arm then you would easily feel where the scales where sunk into the skin. Just in case the wife asked about my sleeves, I had colored the skin of my arm from elbow to mid forearm a red and pink color, to make it look like I had a large birthmark that I wanted to hide from everyone.

Katrina and I had decided on using different names while we were here. My new name was Lucas and Katrina's was Evangeline or Eva for short.

I carried the tray downstairs with Katrina following me. Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, I looked around. There were barely any people in here. I then went to the bar and saw that the owner was behind the bar.

"Here you go, Sir." I said to him as I handed him the tray. The man grunted at me and then he took the tray and went through a door that was behind the bar. After several seconds the wife came through and smiled at us. Katrina and I smiled back.

"Well you two, you ready to work?" the woman asked us. We nodded and then she asked us "May I know your names?"

"My name is Lucas."

"My name is Evangeline." Katrina said to the wife. "What is your name?"

"Wilma, and my husband's name is Jerold." Wilma said with a smile. "Sorry about how rough he is. It takes him a while to get used to new people."

I nodded and then I asked Wilma "So what do you need us to do?"

Wilma looked around the room and then she said to us "First, gather up the mugs, plates and bowls around the room. Then, sweep and mop. Once that is done, come back to me and I will have some more stuff for you to do." Wilma said to us. Then she went into the room in the back.

I looked over to Katrina and asked her "So are you ready to start working, Eva?"

Katrina nodded and then she said to me "Ready when you are, Lucas."

For the next hour we gathered up the dishes and swept then mopped. It felt great to be moving around so much. I was slowly building up the muscles that had gone slack during my time as a prisoner. Obviously, I didn't get much of a workout sweeping and mopping, but by the time I was done my legs were burning from the effort of standing and walking around for so long.

Once Katrina and I were done, we went through the door behind the bar and saw that we were in a large kitchen with about five people in there. All were busy at ovens; from the smell I could easily tell that they were baking bread.

Katrina and I went to where Wilma was pulling out a loaf of bread from one of the ovens.

"We are done." I said to Wilma. "What else may we help you with?"

Wilma looked over at us and then she smiled. She set the loaf of bread on a counter and then she wiped her hands on her apron. "Thank you, Lucas and Evangeline." Wilma looked around the kitchen and then she looked over to me and said "We need more firewood. There is a chopping block outside and an axe should be in the tool shed right next to it. There is a pile of felled trees on the east side of the building."

I nodded and headed towards what appeared to be a back door. As I left, I heard Wilma assigning Katrina to the dishes.

Just as Wilma had said, there was a chopping block and a tool shed that contained several yard tools and an axe. On the ground on the eastern side of the building was a large pile of felled trees. I grabbed one and after quite a bit of struggling, managed to drag it over to an empty spot near the chopping block.

I chopped off the branches, then I started to chop the tree into thick logs. I then cut the logs into firewood using the chopping block.

Once I had a decent amount of firewood, I sat to the chopping block and rested my burning muscles. I sighed and then straightened up, stretching my already stiff muscles.

I put the axe back in the shed and then started carrying the wood into the building, arm loads at a time.

Wilma looked over the amount of wood and then she nodded. "That should do until tomorrow."

I looked to Wilma, completely bewildered. "Back when I was living with my mom we would take at least a week until I had to chop even more." I said to Wilma.

Wilma smiled and then she nodded. "That may be true, but here we have ovens constantly running as well as several fireplaces. We go through quite a bit of fire wood every night."

I sighed. "Do you want me to go chop some more?"

Thankfully, Wilma said to me "No. at the moment I would like for you to take a break. You have been working hard. I can see from all the sweat that is soaking your shirt that you are not used to this kind of work."

"Thanks." I said to Wilma. "Where can I rest?"

Wilma pointed to a table over in the corner where Katrina was sitting and eating. "Employees sit there when eating or taking a break." Wilma said to me. "I will bring you a plate of food."

"Thank you." I said to Wilma. I then went over to the table and sat down in front of Katrina. "How were the dishes?"

"Tiring." Katrina said to me. "There were so many and they were never stopping. As soon as I got done with one load another came in."

I chuckled a little and then Katrina stuck her tongue out at me. I chuckled even louder. Katrina laughed as well.

Wilma brought me a plate of food which consisted of a slab of roasted meat, steamed veggies and a chunk of freshly baked bread. Then Wilma set down a wooden cup of juice and handed me a fork. "Thanks."

I dug into the food with vigor. It wasn't long before my plate was empty. I swallowed the last bite and then I chased it down with the last drink of my juice.

Once I was done eating, Katrina and I sat at the table for a few minutes talking about how we were going to ask Wilma and Jerold whether or not we could stay at the inn for a while and continue to work off the money needed to stay there. 

By the end of the conversation we decided to wait until after we were both done with whatever chores Wilma and Jerold gave us. Then once they tried to send us away we would try and ask about staying for a while. 

With that decided, we continued to work. Wilma had me stocking up the rooms with firewood and she had Katrina washing sheets and blankets. Once we were done with that, we both started to clean up all the vacant rooms.

After that, we had to bring clean sheets and blankets up to the freshly cleaned rooms and make the beds. We then had to refill the oil in all of the lamps that were in the rooms.

By the time we were done with that, night was falling and we were getting a large amount of people coming into the inn for a drink of mead, beer or wine. Katrina and I were running back and forth, from table to table delivering drinks and food and bringing the dirty dishes back to the kitchen.

While we did this I kept a close eye on a table that had several bad men sitting at it. Every time Katrina went near them, they all followed her with their eyes, watching every move she made. Thankfully, once they were done eating they left the building.

After they left, the entire room seemed to relax a bit. More people started drinking, laughing and singing loudly. After a short time, a bard came in carrying a wooden case that contained a lute. The bard sang very well and he drew in a large crowd. It made more work for Katrina and I, but Wilma and Jerold were very happy with all of the money they were making.

One of the tables was full of young women and they kept trying to get me to stay with them and have a drink with them. All three times I had to go to their table they grasped at my hands and tried to pull me into the empty chair.

Thankfully, the women were all drunk enough to not notice the scales that were hidden by my spell. Before to long, all three of the women were passed out on the table and I didn't have to worry about them any more.

Once almost everybody had left the inn, Wilma came over to us. "Well you two, thank you for all the help you have given us. If it weren't for you two then I don't think that we would have been able to make it through tonight without some kind of fight breaking out."

"It was our pleasure to work here." I said to Wilma. "We were wondering if we could ask you something."

Wilma smiled at us. "You want to stay and continue working, don't you?" Wilma asked us.

We nodded and then Wilma smiled a little wider. "Me and my husband both talked over it for a little bit and we decided that if you two wanted to, then we would let you continue to work in exchange for staying here."

"Thank you, Wilma." Katrina said to the woman.

"You are very welcome, Evangeline." Wilma said to Katrina. "Well, lets get some food inside you two."

Katrina and I were very happy to agree. We wolfed down our food and then went to where Wilma directed and we took a bath. After Katrina was done washing, I handed her the clothes, wrapped in what looked to be a sheet that Wilma had given to me a minute ago to give to Katrina.

Once Katrina got out of the bathing room, I saw that she was wearing a sleeveless white night shirt that fell to her knees and socks that went to the top of her calves. Her red hair was pulled back behind her ears, and her freshly washed face was shining from some water that she hadn't dried off. In her arms she carried the clothes that she had worn earlier.

After Katrina left the bathroom I entered carrying the package of clothes that Wilma had given to me. I set the clothes next to a set of burning candles and then I stripped down and then I slipped into the tub of water.

The water was a little cold so I warmed it up with a quick spell. I then bathed and enjoyed the warm water. After a minute or so of relaxing, I climbed out, dried off and then I unwrapped the clothes that Wilma had given me.

What I had previously thought to be a sheet was actually a white night shirt. Folded up inside the shirt was a pair of brown undergarments and a pair of white shorts that reached down to a little below my knee. There was also a pair of socks inside the shorts.

I got dressed and then I left the bathing room holding my dirty clothes. I went up to my room and opened the door. Katrina was lying in her bed with her dirty clothes sitting at the foot of her bed. I tossed my clothes to the foot of my bed and then I lied down in my bed.

After about ten seconds Katrina came over to my bed and lied down with me. I was glad that she did. I pulled her closer to me, gave her a quick kiss on her lips, and we then quickly fell asleep.

The next several days were exactly the same but on what I guessed was Saturday, Jerold stopped Katrina and I before we could start working.

"Alright you two, you have been working here for about a week now, barely ever resting. You two have more than earned an actual pay for all of the work you have done." Jerold said to us. He then handed each of us around seven silver coins.

"The usual amount of pay is fifteen silver coins a week, but since you are staying here, I have deducted the nightly cost from your pay." Jerold told us. "I know that leaves you with barely any money, but it is still better than nothing. You have today off so go ahead and enjoy yourselves." Then Jerold walked to behind the bar and started to get ready for the breakfast customers.

Katrina looked over to me with a wide smile. She quickly took off her apron and I did the same, then I ran the aprons up to our room and as I reached the base of the stairs I saw that Wilma was giving Katrina a large picnic basket.

"Here you go, Evangeline. I hope you and Lucas enjoy it." Wilma said to Katrina before walking into the kitchen.

"Come on, Eva." I said to Katrina. "Lets go and find something fun to do."

"Yeah, lets go!" Katrina said as she hurried out of the inn. I followed her and we both walked down the streets, hand in hand as we looked through the windows of the shops that lined the road. There was a dress shop that Katrina was addicted to and I found a blacksmith that had some very good quality swords and daggers.

As we browsed the shops, back on Vroengard hell was being let loose as the Elder Riders debated on what to do.

"We must go after them! They are to valuable to us to just let them be captured and tortured." one yelled.

"No! We must leave them! They are lost to us." Another yelled.

And then the rest of the elders started to fight amongst each other. Each of them picked a side of the argument and then they all fought over their side of the feud.

All but Eragon fought. Eragon sat in his chair while the rest fought. As soon as one of the elders started to speak the ancient language, so that he may use one of his spells, Eragon intervened.

"Enough!" the master of the riders called out, using his magic to amplify and empower his voice. The room shook and immediately everyone went silent.

Eragon stood from his seat and then he said to the riders assembled around him "We will continue searching for Katrina and Josh. They know far to much to let them remain in the clutches of the Dark Riders."

Eragon turned to his master of informatics. "Have you heard of anything from your spies?"

The man nodded. "They have reported an increase in activity around the Dark Rider's base. We suspect that they are preparing for something. Possibly an attack."

Eragon nodded and then he asked "What of our men on the inside? Have they reported back yet?"

The man nodded and said "Yes, one has. But, his report was cut short. I'm guessing that he was killed while doing the report."

Eragon shook his head. _Too many have died because of this idiotic war._ Eragon thought to himself.

_Eragon, it cannot be helped. Though it is unwanted, death is always near._ Saphira said to her rider.

_I know, Saphira. I just wish it wasn't so._ Eragon said to his dragon. Eragon turned to the man and asked him "What was the report?"

The man pulled out a scroll from his robes and began to read. "No new recruits, none of their dragons have hatched and no new prisoners. Yesterday there was some ruckus in the Hatchling Room. I believe that Josh and Katrina have. . ." the man rolled up the scroll and then said "Report ends there."

Eragon thought for a few seconds and then he asked the man "What kind of activity was going on at their base?"

The man pulled out another scroll and then unrolled it and started to read. "Mostly slender dragons and riders. A large number of what appeared to be messengers, about three hundred of them. All were troops that were capable of large speeds."

Eragon thought for a few more seconds and then he said "What if Josh and Katrina have escaped?" Every pair of eyes in the room looked over to Eragon. "What if that is what our inside man was getting ready to say?"

All eyes widened at the possibility. "But, how could they possibly escape?" one of the elders said to Eragon.

Eragon shook his head while he said "I don't know, but you must all remember that those two are a couple of the top students here at Vroengard. It won't be long before the students start to surpass the teachers."

Several heads nodded. "What do you suggest?" one of the men asked Eragon.

Eragon scratched his chin as he thought it over. "Bring me a map of the area around the Dark Rider's pavilion."

After less than a minute a large map brought to the table. It had the pavilion in the center, the capitol to Surda in the north, on the east was Drevon and at the far south end of the map was a town that was barely big enough to be called a city. The name of that place was Cohan.

Eragon looked it over and came to the same conclusion that Josh and Katrina had.

"They will not go to Surda City, or Cohan. They are smarter than that." Eragon said to the riders that were also looking at the map. "Surda City will be crawling with Dark Riders and Cohan is far to small for them to be able to hide in. Send a team of two riders into Drevon to find Josh and Katrina."

Back in Drevon, night was beginning to fall on two young riders as they made their way back to the inn.

Katrina yawned, and then I did the same. "Damn I'm tired." Katrina said as she leaned on me.

"Same here." I said to her. I held my un-spent coins in my hand; they jingled with almost every step I took.

"I still can't believe that you didn't buy anything." Katrina said for like, the tenth time.

I chuckled and told her, for like the tenth time "I've got to save up so I can get a new sword. Those things cost more than five weeks pay, and that was the cheapest one he had."

Katrina sighed as she admired the velvet gloves she had gotten from a stall in the marketplace for four silver pieces. "These gloves are so amazing." Katrina said to me.

"They look very nice on you." I said to Katrina.

"Thank you, Lucas." Katrina said to me before kissing me on my cheek. _I hate calling you Lucas. It makes me feel as if I'm cheating on you._

_I feel the same way about calling you Evangeline._ I said to Katrina through our mental link.

"You ready to head back to the inn, Eva?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina nodded, yawned, and then she said "Hell yeah. I'm so ready for some dinner and sleep."

I chuckled a little and then we walked the rest of the way in silence. Once we got into the inn, we were greeted by the usual chorus of drunken yells. We may have only been working for a short time, but we were already loved employees.

Katrina and I greeted the men and women and then we went into the kitchen, where Wilma quickly gave us a plate of warm food and a cup of iced juice. We then went to the break table and ate our food, to tired from today's fun to talk much.

Once we were done eating, we put our dirty dishes with the rest and then I told Wilma that we were going to bed.

"Good night you two. See you in the morning." Wilma said to us as we left the kitchen. After we went through the door, several young men called us over to their table. We went over there and greeted them.

"Good evening gentlemen." I said to them. "If you would like something to eat or drink, then you will have to ask one of the other servants. Eva and I have the day off and we were just about to go to bed."

Several of them shook their heads and then the oldest of the group said to us "We don't want you to take our orders. We want you to drink with us." He took a swig of his mead and then slapped his mug on to the wooden tabletop with a loud crack.

"Sorry, but none for me." Katrina said to the men. "I'm far to tired. Although, I'm sure Lucas will want to join you. Have fun." Katrina said to me before kissing my cheek, which made the guys make all kinds of noises, and then she walked away and up the stairs.

I sat down in one of the two empty seats at the table and then I held a hand against my ring, that way I regained some energy.

One of the other servants who worked for the inn came by and took our drink orders. When the drinks were delivered I reluctantly handed over some of my money.

We all grabbed a mug and then the three guys held them up and the oldest said to us "To new friends." Then the guys all banged their mugs against each other and I joined them. Then we all drank deeply from our drinks.

The guys' drinks were all some form of alcohol, but mine was nothing more than some fruit juice. I had ordered some mead but as the servant was writing it down I had invaded her mind, something I hate doing, and changed my order.

One of the guys pulled out a deck of cards and started to deal them out.

"What are we playing?" I asked the guy dealing.

"Well Lucas, we are getting ready to play some poker. Don't worry about bets or anything like that." The guys aid to me. "We don't play for money, we just play for fun."

"Awesome." I said as I checked out my cards.

While we played, we talked. Each of the guys told me about themselves, and when it was my turn to tell my tale, I quickly made one up.

I told them that I was the son of a son of a farmer. No amazing history, no jaw dropping tales of adventure, nothing special about me at all.

"Bullshit." The oldest guy said to me. Tommy was his name. "You do too have an amazing tale to tell."

"Oh really, and what is that?" I asked Tommy as I laid down my cards, revealing two kings, two queens and an ace. All the guys groaned as they saw that I had won that game.

"You and Evangeline." The youngest guy said. His name was Abraham or Abe for short. "How in the hell did you get a woman like that?"

I chuckled a little as Abe handed out the next hand of cards. "My father and I went to the market one day so that he could get some hinges from a blacksmith so that he could finish making a new shed. Our last one didn't have a door, nothing but a large piece of cow hide to keep out the weather."

"While my dad ordered the hinges, I was off getting some bread from the bakery." I told the guys after taking a swing from my mug. "Inside the bakery was Evangeline, working the ovens. She was there because her grandparents had needed help in the bakery."

I folded out of the game and then I continued speaking "Our first encounter was nothing but complete, awkward silence. I absolutely couldn't say anything, except for telling her that I need some bread."

"Where those your exact words, or did you say something else?" the middle guy asked me. His name was Michael.

I pretended to feel embarrassed about the story and then I said to them "It was something more along the line of 'Bread please?'. It was absolutely terrible. I didn't want to go there ever again after that, but my father kept sending me there with sacks of flour and grain. At first I hated him for it but after a while Eva and I started to relax around each other and then we started to actually talk."

"We started to really get along with each other, and before long we were dating. After that, I absolutely loved my father for constantly sending me to the bakery." I chuckled a little and then finished off my juice. I laid down my hand, showing three fours and two aces. Again the guys groaned as I won.

"After a while, Evangeline and I were inseparable." The servant girl came by and filled our mugs. This time, I drank the mead that was inside the large wooden cup. It wasn't as strong as I had thought it was going to be. "When Eva's grandparents told her that she was going to be sent to her parents, she came running to me and telling me the news."

"After that, we realized that there was only one thing to do to stay together." I laid down my cards and folded from the game. "We packed our bags and ran. We were on the road for about three months before we finally got here. I developed quite the skill with a sword from all the bandits that were constantly coming at us."

"Sadly, in the last bandit attack, I got hit in the head by something and was knocked out." I told the guys as I drank from my mug. "When I woke up, our stuff was gone, including my sword. Thankfully, Eva was hiding in a cave we had found the night before."

"She had our valuable stuff with her so we still have our family heirlooms." I said as I held up my hand with my ring on it, making the light from the candles on the table shine on the gem that was embedded in the ring.

"After we got attacked it was just a mere four day walk to here. So, we came here and now we work here in exchange for food and a place to sleep." I said to the guys. I finished up my drink and then I showed my hand of cards to the guys and again they groaned.

"Well guys," I said to them as I stretched. "I've got work in the morning so I'm going to sleep." I stood up from my chair and then said to them "See you guys later." They all said similar fare-wells to me and then I walked up the stairs and to my room where Katrina was sleeping in her bed, her red hair was like a flaming halo round her head, making look like a fiery angel as she slept.

I undressed quickly; just in case she was only faking being asleep and then I dressed in a new set of night clothes that Wilma had given to me. I looked at my bed then over to Katrina's.

I walked over to Katrina and lied down next to her in the bed. I pulled her closer and then covered us both up with the blanket. I yawned and then kissed Katrina on her forehead. Katrina mumbled a little in her sleep and I'm sure that I heard my name in her mumblings, but before I could figure out she stopped mumbling and returned to simply breathing.

"Good night." I muttered before falling asleep.

**I hope you guys liked chapter seven. Please review and have a nice day.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry about not posting this yesterday. I bought GTA 5 on Friday and I haven't been able to stop playing.**

Katrina and I had been working at the inn for three weeks since we arrived. It was our free day and we were going on another picnic. As I pulled each of the items from the basket, I checked each one for poison and every time I found none.

I handed Katrina one of the glasses that were in the basket and then I grabbed the bottle of juice and poured us both a full glass. We clinked them together and then drank. As we drank and ate the berries that were in the basket, we watched the clouds go by.

Every once and a while I would glance at Katrina and see her red hair flowing gently in the breeze and her shining blue eyes gazing up into the sky. From all the time we were spending inside the inn, she was losing her tan and was growing pale, but she still looked beautiful.

I looked around us and found a good sized rock that was a little smaller than my torso. Using magic, I cut the sides of as well as the top until it was small enough to hold in one hand but still large enough to hold a decent picture.

I cast a spell and slowly colors started to show on the rock. First the grass of the hill showed at the bottom and then slowly the form of Katrina started to appear. Finally the sky colored in and then I ended the spell. I looked over to Katrina and saw that she was still gazing at the sky. I then placed the fairth in between us and continued to look into the sky and at the clouds.

After a minute or so Katrina noticed the fairth and then she picked it up and gazed at it. I could feel through our constant mental link that she loved it. Katrina set the fairth down and then she scooted closer to me, until she was sitting on the spot that the fairth had been on.

Then, Katrina leaned against me and raised her head up to face me. We kissed for a few seconds and then once we broke the kiss, we gazed into each other's eyes. Then we kissed again, but this was not like the other kisses. This one had a depth to it that the others didn't. We kissed again until we ran out of breath.

Once Katrina had her breath back, she attempted to speak. "Josh, I . . . I lo . . . I."

I held a finger to her lips, silencing her. "I know, and so do I." I then moved my finger from her lips and we kissed again. I fell back until Katrina was lying on top of me and holding the sides of my face while we kissed. I wrapped my arms around her and wished that the kiss could never end.

_As do I._ Katrina said to me from her mind.

I felt the ground vibrate and then the familiar sound of armor clinking together as its wearer ran hit my ears. It did the same for Katrina and we quickly ended the kiss we had been enjoying so much and climbed to our feet. We looked over to where the sound was coming from and then we ran in the opposite direction and into the city, leaving the remains of our picnic on the hill.

Back on Vroengard, Eragon was pacing the large room as the Elder Riders tried to think of a reason why they couldn't find their two lost riders. "It is possible that they didn't even escape." One of the elders said to Eragon.

Eragon's shoulders slumped as he accepted the horrible idea. The man nodded and then he turned around and faced his council. "Ladies and gentlemen, we must accept that Josh and Katrina did not escape the Dark Rider pavilion. Withdraw our riders from," Eragon didn't get a chance to utter another syllable as his master of informatics shot up from his seat and then turned his head to Eragon.

"Master Eragon, a message has been sent from our riders. Permission to relay it to you?" the man asked Eragon.

Eragon vigorously nodded and then he said "Speak."

"We have finally found their minds. Whatever it was that was hiding their minds from us has finally slipped and we are already on our way to where we sensed them." The man said to Eragon. After a few seconds the man said "I have received another message. This one says that they have been spotted and our riders are in pursuit." After a few more seconds the man's eyes widened and then he said to Eragon "Their minds have disappeared once more. We can no longer sense them. But, we have found a fairth near a picnic basket. We suspect that this is what Katrina looks like at the moment." Then the informatics master sent a mental image of the fairth to Eragon.

"We will now be searching everywhere for her, now that we know what she looks like we should be able to find them." The man said to Eragon.

Eragon nodded and then he told the man "Tell our riders to search the inns that are near the center of the city. They are most likely staying at one of those." The man nodded and relayed the information.

"Message sent Sir." The man said before a second had passed.

"I don't understand why they are running." One of the elders said to Eragon.

Eragon looked over to the woman and then he said to her "They must not know that the riders following them are ours. It is highly possible that Josh and Katrina believe that they are being followed by the Dark Riders." The woman nodded her understanding.

Eragon heaved a sigh of relief, then he sat in his chair. "Finally, they can come home."

Back in the inn, Josh and Katrina were packing their meager belongings. "I can't believe that they found us." I said to Katrina. "After being here for so long and being so careful they have finally found us."

"I can't believe it either." Katrina said to me. Katrina was blocking in her mind the reason why we had been found from me.

A while back she had found a scroll that had contained a strange enchantment. It was a ward and when cast it could block your mind from your enemies. She had to constantly concentrate on it in order for it to work. When she and I had kissed her concentration had slipped and the ward had fallen, revealing our minds to our enemies.

"How are we going to tell Wilma and Jerold that we have to leave?" I asked Katrina.

Katrina didn't answer, she just shook her head.

Katrina and I carried our packs downstairs and then entered the kitchen where Wilma and Jerold were eating lunch.

We waited until they noticed us and then I said to Wilma and Jerold "We have to leave. What we fled from has finally caught up to us and so we are going to leave before harm comes to you and your inn."

Wilma stood up and walked over to us. Then she surprised us by wrapping us in a hug. "I knew that you would eventually have to leave us. I just hoped that this day wouldn't come any time soon." Wilma said to us with tears in her eyes. "Ever since our own children left, I have missed the company of young ones. Thank you for all that you have done for us and good luck in your future travels, Josh and Katrina."

Katrina and I were surprised as she used our real names.

Wilma nodded and then she said to us "I have known who you were for the past two weeks. I found a wanted poster near the gate and I saw two young people who looked remarkably familiar." Wilma rubbed her eyes before she continued. "When I looked closer I saw that it was you two. The poster said that you were wanted from killing some kind of general of the army. I didn't believe the poster so I came back here and just went along with your story."

Jerold came over to us and said "Will you please show us what you really look like?"

Katrina and I looked at each other and by unspoken agreement, we let our disguises fall. Both Wilma and Jerold were shocked as they saw our disguises melt away and our true selves show. But, they were even more shocked when they saw my arm.

"The poster had said that your right arm was malformed, but I never figured it would really look like that." Wilma said to me. "What happened to it?"

I sighed and then told them "My dragon healed my arm after a horrible flying accident. He used magic and this happened to my arm."

Wilma's and Jerold's eyes widened. "You're a rider?" Jerold asked me.

I turned my hand over so that they could see my palm and the gedwey ignasia shone in the light. Katrina did the same and the couple both gasped.

"It looks like you don't need luck." Jerold said with a smile. "You have your fighting skills and your magic. Where are your dragons?"

"They are back on Vroengard." I said to Jerold. "We were taken from Vroengard and then brought to our enemy's pavilion where we later escaped. We then came here to hide." Jerold nodded and then he walked out of the kitchen. A few seconds later he came back with a leather pouch and when he handed it to Katrina, I could hear the jingle of coins.

"Take these to get yourselves weapons. If what you say is true then you will need them." Then Jerold hugged Katrina tightly then he hugged me. "Good luck out there."

I nodded and then Katrina led the way out of the kitchen while she tried to hold back her tears. We both brought our disguises back and then we walked out of the kitchen and then out of the inn. I then led the way to the blacksmith and half an hour later we left with a sword strapped to each of our hips.

The weight on my waist felt comforting as I led the way through the city. As we walked, I heard the sound of armor again and then I looked around for the source. I found it behind us in the form of two soldiers in leather and metal armor, each with a sword at their hip and a bow and quiver of arrows on their back.

The man they were talking to was nodding and then he pointed directly at us. The soldiers turned around and faced us and in one of their hands I could see the fairth I had made of Katrina. The soldiers started to run after us and so Katrina and I started to run as well.

The soldiers chasing us were trained well and all the weeks of not trainer were taking their toll on Katrina and I. it wasn't long before the soldiers caught up to us.

I whipped out my sword and then Katrina did the same. The swords were identical and had a slightly short double edged blade with a simple metal cross-guard and pommel and the hilt was made of light colored wood.

"Josh, Katrina, we are here on behalf of Eragon!" one of the soldiers said to us. "We are here to take you back to Vroengard."

"How are we possibly supposed to believe that?" I yelled at the men, letting my disguise slip away now that it was pointless. Katrina did the same. A gasp came up from the crowd of people that surrounded us as the disguises fell.

Then, the soldier spoke again, but this time in the ancient language. After going so long without hearing it, I couldn't quite understand what he had said and neither did Katrina. But, I understood the main point of what he said. He had basically just repeated himself.

"While I was prisoner of the Dark Riders they had a man there who looked exactly like Eragon." I said to the soldiers. "They had also called it Vroengard. For all I know, we are being tricked again. Prove that you are riders of Eragon."

Both of the riders looked at each other and then nodded. They drew their swords and then did something that I didn't expect. They tossed their swords to our feet. I looked down and saw that the metal of each sword was not like normal metal. Not only was one gray and the other black, but they held an inner shine to them. Only one metal looked like that when forged into a sword, and there was only one woman in all of Alagaesia that knew the secrets to forging with it.

"Brightsteel." I said out loud. Katrina looked from our enemies to the swords and she gasped. Katrina and I then sheathed our weapons and picked up the swords. We returned the swords to their owners.

"Are you ready to return to Vroengard?" the soldier asked us.

Katrina and I nodded and then the soldier nodded as well. After a few seconds a loud flapping sound could be heard. I looked to my left and saw that a gray and a black dragon were raising up above the walls of the city. The dragons then flew over to us and landed in the wide street.

The soldiers patted their dragons on the shoulder and then they climbed up and into the saddle, beckoning for us to do the same. I stretched my mind out and felt the dragon's mind. It let me connect and then I said to the dragon _Is it alright with you if I ride you?_

_Yes, young rider._ The dragon said to my mind in a masculine voice.

_Thank you._ I said to the dragon before climbing on. I looked over to Katrina and saw that she had done the same as I had done and had asked for permission before climbing up. After a couple seconds the wings of the dragons were flapping in slow strong movements and after several flaps the dragons raised up from the ground and then shot out from the city, facing west toward Vroengard.

After a couple days of flying we landed in Carvahall. The dragons both lied down in the dragon houses while their riders looked for something for them to eat and then Katrina took me up to the castle of Carvahall.

It was a short walk to the castle but a long walk through it until we finally reached the room where her family was. Katrina opened the door and then hurried inside. I followed unsurely behind her.

As soon as I stepped a foot into the room I heard a loud feminine shriek and my hand instantly went to my sword and then I took the last few steps inside to see where the danger was. There was no danger, and as I looked around the room, I was certain that there wasn't going to be so I remained in the shadows of the door. The damn room was filled with guards who all carried a sword and a pike. They also all held a smile as they watched Katrina hug a girl who looked exactly like her, with the exception of her brown hair.

Katrina and her twin sister Anna parted from their hug and then Katrina hurried over to a large chair that could almost be called throne and then she hugged the red bearded man who sat in it. Then Katrina went to the chair next to it and hugged the brown haired woman who sat in it.

"It is so good to see you again, Katrina." The man said to her. "It is great to see that you are now safe from the Dark Riders. So how has my little girl been since the last time we saw each other?"

"I've been great, Daddy." Katrina said to the man. "I've learned so much while I was at Vroengard. I've learned even more about sword fighting as well as magic. My dragon is so beautiful. Before Josh and I were kidnapped my," Katrina didn't say another word as the hand of her father was raised, motioning for her to be silent.

"Where is Josh? I have heard much about him from Eragon." The man asked his daughter.

I stepped out of the shadows and said to the man "I am here, Sir."

He was startled to say the least; as was every single guard in the room. Every pike in the room was lowered until it was pointed at me.

"Lower you weapons." The man said to the guards. "This young rider can undoubtfully defeat each and every one of you without breaking a sweat."

"I highly doubt that, Sir." I said to the man. "It has been quite some time since the last time I have trained with my sword."

The man nodded and then said to me "If you plan on staying for a few days, then I know where you can train. We have some excellent swordsmen here that you can train with."

"That sounds excellent, Sir. I can't wait to start training again." I said to the man.

"My name is Roran Stronghammer the seventh." The man said to me. Then, he pointed to the woman and said "This is my wife, Sandra Stronghammer. You already know both of my daughters, and my son is away at the moment but should be back within a few days."

"It is a pleasure to meet you all." I said to them as I bowed.

"Come, it is time to eat." Sandra Stronghammer said as she stood. She then led the way to the huge dining room that could most likely fit more than three hundred people at its long tables and countless chairs and then for some reason past the dining room and through a narrow door and into a small room with a rectangular table with ten chairs around it.

"This our personal dining room." Katrina explained to me. I watched as everyone went to a specific chair and before Katrina could pull out her chair I did it for her and then I pushed her to the table. "Thank you." Katrina said to me. Roran did the same for his wife and then I pulled out the chair next to Katrina for Anna and then she sat down and then I pushed her to the table. She also thanked me. I then took my own seat on the opposite side of Katrina.

Roran clapped his hands once and instantly several servants rushed in with platters piled high with food. The servants placed the steaming food in the center of the table and then each servant set down a plate in front of us as well as a fork and a dining knife. Then a glass goblet was set in front of each of us. Red wine was poured into Roran's and Sandra's goblets and then into Anna's, Katrina's and my goblet a type of fruit juice.

Before I took a drink I muttered a spell to make sure there was no poison in it. After I was sure that there wasn't any poison in my juice, I took a drink.

Then the servants all put servings of food onto our plates. Dwarf customs were very strong in the Stronghammer home because of an old friendship between several of the dwarf clans and the family and so they did the thing where the head of the table took the first bite of food and announced that the food was good.

I happily ate the warm food. While we had been flying on our way here we had nothing but cold and dry fruits and vegetables. It was a very welcome relief to be eating the warm moist meat and vegetables. As well as the fresh fruits that was served to us.

Once we were done eating, Roran said to me "A servant shall show you to a room where you may bathe and then you will be shown to your room. I shall see you in the morning."

I bowed to Roran and then followed a servant to a bathing room. The servant said to me "If you will wait here, then I shall bring you some fresh clothing."

"That would be great." I said to the young man. "I shall wait here."

The man walked off and a couple minutes later he returned with a night shirt and a pair of night pants in his arms. I thanked him and then entered the bathing room that was lit with an overhead chandelier. I undressed and then happily climbed into the stone bath.

I washed off the dirt and grime from traveling and then I relaxed in the warm water for a while. After I was done, I climbed out and dried off with a spell. Then I got dressed in the clothing and left the room with my old clothes in my arms.

Two servants where waiting for me. The girl servant asked me "Would you like for me to take your old clothing and have it washed?" I looked down at the filthy garments in my arms and I then nodded vigorously. I handed the servant my clothes and she walked off.

"If you will follow me then I shall show you to your room." The servant said before he started walking down the stone corridor.

After a couple turns we reached a hallway that was dotted at regular intervals with doors. The servant led me to the fifth door on the left and then he said to me "This shall be your room for as long as you stay here. Please enjoy your night."

"Thank you." I said to the servant before walking into the room. The room was pitch black and so I cast a spell for some light and saw that the room was of average size. There was a decent sized bed in the corner of the room, a nightstand was beside the bed and on the opposite side of the room was a wooden desk with an uncomfortable looking chair pushed up to it. In two of the corners of the room was a metal stand with several unlit candles set into the metal. Next to one of the stands was a washbasin with some water in.

I muttered brisingr and then sent the flame over each of the candles until they were lit. I released both of my spells and then I went over to the desk to get a better look at it. It was simple wood and had three drawers, one above where the chair went and two on the right side. I looked in each of the drawers and found paper, ink and a couple quills in the first drawer, nothing in the second and in the third was a small dagger. I looked it over and saw that it was barely better than the knife I had used to cut my meat during dinner. I returned the dagger to the drawer and then went over to the washbasin.

I leaned over it and then muttered the spell for scrying and then I thought of Eragon.

The water in the basin went completely still and then after a few seconds the image of eragon's office was visible in the water. The office was just like the last time I had seen it. The desk was covered in papers and rolls of parchment. But sadly Eragon wasn't in the room.

I ended the spell then did the same while thinking of Manny. The water went still again and after a few seconds I could see the interior of Manny's room. He was sitting in his room reading a scroll and his dragon, Wendur was lounging in his bed.

"It is very nice to see you again." I said to the elf and the dragon, making them both jump from surprise. Manny's hand instantly went to his sword and I could see emerald flames growing in Wendur's open jaws. "Wow, no need to be so hostile."

Manny and Wendur looked over to the mirror he had in his room and then they hurried over to it and Manny started to ask countless questions while Wendur jumped up and down, growling and roaring.

"Slow down, Manny." I said to elf. He halted his stream of questions, took a deep breath and then slowly asked me a question.

"Where have you been?" he asked me.

"I was captured by the Dark Riders and then I was tricked for a while. Then Katrina and I escaped and hid in a city. We went to an inn and in exchange for a place to sleep and food to eat we worked at the inn. We were there for around three weeks and then some of our riders found Katrina and I and we are now on our way back. I'm currently in Carvahall, taking a break from all of the flying. I will be at Vroengard in a few days."

The door to Manny's room burst open and Claire ran in. "Where have you been?" Claire asked me.

I repeated the story to Claire. "Holy shit." Claire said to me once I was done repeating my tale. Then both Manny's and Claire's faces went blank and then they smiled. Claire uttered a spell and I heard the sound of fabric snapping in the wind. After a second I remembered the sound and realized that it was the sound of the dragon door opening.

After a couple of seconds I heard a loud thud and then a familiar dark blue scaled head came into view. "I have missed you, Blugun." I said to my dragon.

After a couple seconds Manny told me "Blugun wants me to tell you that he says that he missed you too. He wants to know where you have been."

I told the story a third time and afterward Manny said to me "Blugun wants to know why you didn't try to contact us earlier."

"I didn't want to be discovered. I was afraid that if I used powerful magic such as scrying then the Dark Riders would find me." I said to my friends.

"Blugun says that you should have risked it." Manny said to me. "You had us all very worried."

I nodded and said "Yeah, I probably should have." I then yawned "How have you all been?"

Manny was silent for a few seconds and then he said to me "Very stressful. It is difficult to focus on studies when a friend is missing. That is from both Blugun and me."

I nodded once more. "How have the studies been?"

"Because of how two of our classmates are gone, Silina has been going easy on us. It is all simple stuff that you and Katrina should easily catch up with once you get back."

"What about your studies, Blugun?" I asked the dragon.

After a few seconds Manny said to me "Rough, my teachers are insensitive. They have never had anything happen to their riders so they have no idea how it feels to lose their rider. Thankfully, there are a few elder dragons here who know how it feels and they have been very helpful."

"It is good to hear that you have been getting some support. It has been pretty bad for me as well to be away from you for so long." I said to Blugun. "I can't wait to be back on Vroengard. What do you say to flying around for a while once I get back?"

Barely a second later Manny flinched, then while he rubbed his forehead he said to me "That would be great. I can't wait to see you again."

"Manny, what happened?" I asked the elf as he continued to rub his head. I looked over to Claire and saw that she was holding back laughter.

"Blugun answered your question very quickly and very strongly." Manny said with a slight chuckle.

I laughed a little and then Claire burst into laughter and then Manny joined her. Blugun and I did the same and after a bit we all settled down. Claire yawned and started a chain reaction. Manny yawned, Blugun yawned; which is a very frightening thing to see for anybody not used to dragons, and then I yawned.

"I think that it is now time for bed." I said to everyone. "Good night. See you all in a few days." After we all exchanged our good night's I ended the spell and went to the bed in the room.

I leaned my sword against the bed and then sat down on the edge of the bed. I stretched and then leaned back until I was lying on my back. I yawned and then worked my way underneath the covers. I muttered a spell and then all the candles were put out as a gust of wind was blown over both of the candle stands.

After a few seconds I was in a comfortable position and then after a few more seconds I was in a deep sleep.

My sleep was so deep that I didn't hear the door open and I also didn't wake as another human mind entered the room. I continued to sleep as the person came over to the bed and then took the covers off of me. The person crawled into the bed next to me and cuddled up to my chest, covering us both up with the blanket. Unconsciously I wrapped my arms around the figure and then we both slept.

When I awoke I opened my eyes and saw that Katrina was in the bed with me. For a few seconds I thought that we were back at the inn and then I realized that we were in Carvahall and deep inside the castle of the Stronghammer family.

There was no telling what would happen if somebody walked in and caught us in the same bed.

As I was imagining the horrible things that would be done to me, the door quietly opened and I watched in terror as a figure walked into the room. I heard the ancient language being spoken and suddenly a bright blue light filled the dark room. After my eyes adjusted to the light I was that it was Anna in a thin white night gown.

"Good morning you two." Anna said to us.

Katrina groaned as she woke up.

"I thought that it would be best if Katrina left now before someone comes in and catches you." Anna said to us.

"That would be best." I said to Anna. I looked down at Katrina and saw that she was sad that she had to leave. I gave her a quick kiss on the lips and said to her "We shall see each other at breakfast."

Katrina nodded, kissed me back and then the twins left the room together.

I yawned and then got up and stretched. I went over to the door and went into the hallway. I looked to the left and then the right and saw that a servant was coming this way with a bundle of cloth in her arms.

"Good morning, Sir." The girl said to me. "I have some fresh clothes for you. The ones you were earing last night are still being cleaned. I hope that is alright."

"Yes, that is fine." I said to the girl with a smile. She stared at my right arm as I accepted the clothes she handed me. "Thank you." I said to her before entering my room and casting a spell to light the candles.

I checked out the clothes and saw that I had been given a simple white tunic and black pants with a leather belt and a black leather jerkin. I got dressed, slipped my sword on and then my boots. As I left my room I saw that the servant was still there.

"Sir, do you remember the way to the dining room or would you like for me to escort you there?" the servant asked me.

"I don't remember the way. It would be fantastic if you could show me the way." I said to the servant girl.

The girl nodded and then she said to me "Follow me."

As we walked I rubbed my chin and saw that it already had a decent amount of thick hair on it. I used a quick spell and then the hair fell off of my face, leaving it soft and smooth.

After a short while longer we reached the dining room and I walked in through the open door, thanking the servant as she walked away.

I went into the room and saw that Katrina and Anna were already seated and both in a heated discussion about what kind of dress was better for a dance. I looked around the room and saw that it was only us three and two servants.

I sat down at the table in the same seat as last night and before I could ask a servant brought me a wooden mug filled with a sweet smelling tea. While I drank, I listened to the conversation between the two twins.

Katrina was saying that a dress with the end reaching just below the knees was better for dancing because then you wouldn't trip on the end. Anna was saying that the length didn't matter as long as you knew how to dance in a dress.

"Well then ask Josh!" Katrina exclaimed loudly. "Lets see what he thinks about which dress is better." Then both of the girls turned to face me with expectant looks on their faces.

I looked down at my tea and saw that it was almost empty. "May I get more tea please?" one of the servants nodded and then went into what I was guessing was the kitchen. I ignored the stares of the twins while I waited for the tea.

The servant entered the room with a tall glass pitcher full of tea. While the servant poured the tea, she whispered to me "I put some whiskey in here for you. You're going to need it." Then she winked at me and went to her post.

I cast a quick poison spell on the tea and once I was satisfied I drank from the wooden mug. I had only had whiskey once and it tasted the same as I remembered it, except this time it had a sweet taste to it thanks to the tea.

I took another drink and then I set the mug down and looked over to Katrina and Anna. Both were waiting for my answer to which dress was better. I lifted my mug again and took another drink. I heard one of the girls groan and I lowered my mug to see that it was Katrina.

"Stopping drinking and agree with me!" Katrina said to me. "You know I'm right so just say it."

"You're not right. I'm right." Anna said to Katrina. "Ugh, we're just going around in circles again. Josh, decide who is right so that we may no longer worry about it."

I nodded, and took another drink. I set down my mug and then Katrina snatched it from the table before I could stop her.

I had to answer her now. But thankfully, the door opened before I answered and in walked Roran and Sandra Stronghammer. They both sat down and then Roran clapped his hands and before food could be brought in Katrina yelled out "Stop! If food gets put on this table then we will never get an answer from Josh!"

_Shit._

"Answer for what?" Roran asked his daughter.

"Anna and I were having an argument about what kind of dress is better for dancing and since we couldn't decide we agreed that Josh should say which kind of dress is better." Katrina told her father.

Roran loudly laughed, filling the room with the joyful sound. I couldn't help but smile as I heard it.

"Come on Josh! Just answer the question." Anna begged me.

I looked over to her and sighed. "I have no idea. I've never danced with a woman so I have absolutely no idea which is better."

Roran laughed even louder. "Fantastic!" the man roared. "We can make some sort of a contest of this!"

"I agree." Sandra said to us. "Josh shall dance with both girls, each wearing the dress of their choice and then he shall decide which is better."

"It is decided then." The man said to us. "I say we have this little competition in five days, that way our contestants can all warm up on their dancing." With that decided, Roran clapped once more and this time the food was brought in without any interruptions.

As we ate, Katrina and Anna talked about the dress they were going to wear to the competition and Roran and Sandra talked about the preparations with a servant who wrote stuff down quickly on the parchment he held in his hand.

While they all talked and ate, I sat and wondered about how I had gotten into this mess. I felt Katrina's mind touch mine and I connected with her.

_I can't wait! We will finally be able to dance together!_ Katrina said to me through our mental link.

_I won't be able to do the competition._ I said to Katrina.

Katrina stopped talking to Anna and then she turned to me and asked me "Why not?"

"Because I don't know how to dance." I said to Katrina.

"Then you shall learn, Josh. We have excellent teachers here who will be more than willing to teach you." Sandra said to me.

"Yes Ma'am." I said her with a nod. After that we all continued to eat while Katrina showed me all kinds of dancing techniques with mental images.

By the end of breakfast it had been decided that the competition would be in a week instead of five days. This was to make sure that I knew how to dance by then. As I followed a servant to my first dancing class, I wondered about how I had managed to get myself into this mess.

**Hey, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review and have a nice day.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry about not updating last week. Three of my college classes had a test last week and all my time was spent studying. I got an a on two of the tests but on the third I got a c. I fucking hate math. I still don't understand why I have to take it but I do. Again, sorry about not posting last week.**

The first several days of the dancing lessons were hell as my muscles were truly exercised. Every night I scryed Manny and Claire. I always talked to the dragons and last night Katrina's dragon and Amethi came to talk. Katrina hurried to my room to speak to her young dragon. They talked for more than half an hour during which they finally decided on a name. They decided on the name Sencil, which means serene in the ancient language.

That night when I scryed them everybody was pretty disappointed when I told them that I wouldn't be able to come when I had previously thought. But, when I told them the reason all Manny could do was laugh. Claire tried to hold in her laughter but it eventually broke through. Even Blugun had laughed. They all knew how terrible I was at dancing.

And then gave me some tips on dancing, just like she had done when they had first seen me dance.

"Just remember, you have to be light on your feet, just like when you're sword fighting. Also, don't watch your feet. Keep looking into your partner's eyes." Claire said to me. "Also be sure that you hand doesn't stray to far down. Girls do not like it when men touch their butt during a dance. That is how men lose fingers."

"Got it." I said to Claire. "Anything else?" I asked the girl.

Claire thought for a few seconds and then she said to me "You just need to relax and have some fun. That is the main thing to remember." Claire then smiled and said to me "See you tomorrow."

"Yep, see you tomorrow." I said to her. "See you tomorrow Manny."

I ended the spell and then went over to my bed and sat down.

_It's to bad that Blugun couldn't make it so I could talk to him._ I say to myself in my mind. _I wonder what he was doing. Oh well, I'll talk to him tomorrow. If I can survive the dancing practice._

I quickly fall asleep and when I wake up I once again feel that Katrina is in my bed with me. I kiss her to wake her up and she groans as she comes to consciousness.

"Good morning, Katrina." I say to her.

"Good morning , Josh." Katrina says to me before returning my kiss.

I cast a spell that would light the candles in the room and then I smile at her and then I say "You know you still haven't answered my question about why you always sneak into my room. May I please get an answer now?"

Katrina smiled at me and then she said "Alright, but only because you asked nicely. If I sleep by myself then I have nightmares. When I sleep with my dreams are always beautiful."

"Are you just saying that so that I don't kick you out of my bed or are you telling me the truth?" I ask Katrina.

Katrina puts on an innocent face and then she says to me in the cutest voice she could do "I'm telling you the truth, Josh. Please don't make me sleep by myself." Katrina held her cute face for a few seconds and then she started to giggle. "Damn, I almost held it." Katrina says as she giggles even louder.

I laugh a little with her and then I ask her "So what is the real reason?"

"I just sleep better. I can't explain why, all I know is that I sleep better if you are near." Katrina said to me.

I smile at her and then I kiss her gently. "I sleep better when you're near as well." I say to Katrina as I sit up. Katrina sits up as well and then she stands up from the small bed so that I can then stand up.

I stretch and then go over to my closet and pull out some clothes. I turn to Katrina who leaning against the wall and yawning.

"Katrina, I have to get dressed so I will need you to leave." I say to the tired red-head. "You also have to get dressed so I suggest that you hurry to your room."

Katrina groans a little but she knows that she has to leave so she kisses me one last time and then she leaves me alone in my room. I quickly get dressed and then I grab my sword and strap it onto my waist. I grabbed my boots and then I slip them on and leave the room.

I quickly walked the now familiar path to the training room. At first the turns and corridors had confused me but after walking down in several times I got used to the way and soon had it memorized.

When I entered the small room I was surprised to see that for once it wasn't just the elfish instructor and the two other dance students there, but also Roran Stronghammer and his wife, Sandra.

"Ah, there he is. Josh, I hope you don't mind but we have come to see your progress so far." Sandra said as she saw me enter the room.

I bowed to her and said "Of course I don't mind. It is a pleasure to have you here as well as your husband."

"Alright Josh," my instructor said as he approached me. "You know the drill. Remove your sword, boots and your ring then put on the shoes."

I looked over to the dainty little shoes that I had to wear and sneered.

"I know you hate the shoes but they must be worn while in this room. Regular boots scuff the floor." My instructor told me.

I hung my head and did as he told me to do. I removed my sword, ring and then sadly my boots. Then I slipped on the soft white shoes and laced them up. I growled at the shoes as if I was a dragon, something I rarely ever do. I only ever do that if I absolutely hate the object.

"No growling." My instructor said as he tapped me on my head with a spare shoe. "Stand up and get ready to stretch."

I did as he said and joined the line of students then we all did the stretches which left my muscles already burning from the unbelievable poses that I had to stretch and flex myself into.

"Good, much better than yesterday." The instructor said to me. The damn man hadn't even broken a sweat. The other two students, which were both girls, were also sweating and breathing heavily, but none were as bad as me.

"All right students, now that we are done with our stretches get your partner and get ready for dance number three." The instructor said to us. I went over to the brown haired girl and then I gripped her hand and her waist while she gripped my hand and set her other hand on my shoulder.

The instructor waved his hand at a diamond that was set into a wooden frame and the diamond started to emit a light hearted dancing melody.

"Remember, find the beat and follow it." The instructor said to us as he started to dance with the other student.

After a few seconds I managed to start the dance and then as always I messed up after a few steps. My partner, Jennifer, just smiled encouragingly at me and then she said to me "Just relax, Josh. You will get the hang of it."

I nodded at her and then started again. I managed to go a while without messing up but when I did I somehow managed to step on my on foot which made me hop up and down holding it. "Damn these ridiculous shoes. I bet that I could do this if I could just wear my boots instead of these things." I said to Jennifer.

Jennifer giggled a little and then we got back into stance and started to dance again. I just barely managed to go the rest of the dance without messing up.

"Very good you three. Nice work on your speed Jennifer." Then he turned to the blond girl he had been dancing with and said "Very nice grace, Stefanie. And Josh, your footwork is getting much better. Now, dance four. Positions and begin." Again the melody started up and then we quickly started to dance. I barely managed to not mess up. I just had to remain focused on my feet and where they were going and this time I didn't step on a single toe.

"Marvelous, Josh. Absolutely marvelous." The instructor said to me.

The blond, Stefanie cleared her throat and then she asked the instructor "Instructor, may we please have a break?"

The elf nodded and then he said "You three may have a ten minute break." Then he went over to Roran and Sandra and started to talk to them as we three students sat down on the hard wood floor with wooden cups of cold water that a servant brought us as soon as the instructor said we could have a break.

As we sat and drank, we talked a little. "Josh," Stefanie said to me. "You really are getting better. I still can't believe how terrible you were when you first came here. You were constantly stepping on not only our feet but also your own."

I nodded as I remembered the terrible first day I had. It had been just as the blond had said. I had been stepping on toes and feet the entire day and it had been terrible.

"I had always been told that all swordsmen were amazing dancers." Jennifer said to me. "You sure proved me wrong." she said with a slight giggle.

"Come on now, give me a break." I groaned. "I'm getting better. That last dance didn't have a single toe getting stepped on."

"That's true." Jennifer said to Stefanie. "Good thing too. My toes were beginning to feel like they were going to fall off." Jennifer said as she rubbed her feet.

We talked for a couple of minutes and the conversation somehow turned to the instructor.

"He truly is an odd elf." Stefanie said to us.

I nodded and drank the last of my water. "Why won't he tell us his name?"

The girls shook their heads. "We have no idea." Jennifer said to me. "No matter how many times we ask him he never tells us."

"It is absurd." Stefanie said to me.

"Alright, stop talking about me." The instructor said as he walked over to us. "It's time to continue class."

"Hold on a second." Roran called out. The instructor stopped his hand motion for the music and then looked over to the bearded man. "Let Josh wear his boots this time. I want to see if he truly is better with them rather than those dainty shoes he's wearing."

I happily agreed and then went over to wear I had my boots setting next to my other objects. I almost tore off my shoes and then I quickly slipped my boots and went over to Jennifer and we got ready for the next dance.

The instructor waved his hand once more and the music for dance seven started up. Jennifer and I quickly started dancing and this was undoubtfully the best dance I had done. It was the most fun I had while dancing.

When the dance was over, the instructor just stared at me for a few seconds and then he said for us to switch partners and then we did dance four again.

Again I danced great. It was the weight of my boots that was helping me. Those stupid little shoes were to light and I was unaccustomed to the feeling.

Once the dance was over the instructor looked at me again and then he hung his head. After he looked back up at me he said "I can't believe I'm saying this but you were right. You are better at dancing in those boots than in the specially designed dancing shoes."

"So can I wear my boots from now on?" I asked him. He nodded and I smiled a wide smile.

"Awesome." I said.

"That is great. Thank you so much." Stefanie said to the instructor. "We can finally go home without our toes feeling as if they are on fire."

Jennifer giggled and then she nodded and said "Yes, thank you Instructor."

The instructor sighed and then said "Whatever. Let us just continue with today's lesson."

The rest of the day went by easily and it was full of fun. As was the next few days of lessons.

The day of the competition came by all to soon. I honestly felt as if I needed some more training but they couldn't postpone the dance just so I could get more training.

The morning of the dance I got a set of dance robes custom made for me. They consisted of a black over-robe with a white tunic beneath it. I was then given a pair of black felt gloves.

I put the robes on and then followed as a servant showed me the way to the dance hall. The door that led to the hall was a large and well lit room with tall and wide windows all along one window as well as candles that were evenly spaced out all around the room.

There were servants running all over the room, getting stuff ready for the dance. On large tables that were pushed against the wall large platters of food were being set out as well as pitchers of drinks and glasses sat next to the pitchers. On one end of the room was a bunch of chairs in case any of the dancers got tired from all of the dancing.

I watched the servants run around for a few minutes and then I sat down in one of the chairs to wait for the dance to begin. As I waited, more people showed up for the dance. Among them was Anna. She was wearing a long flowing dress made of light blue silk with white lace on the hems of her sleeves and her collar. Her hair was curled and left down so the brown locks of hair cascaded from her head.

When she saw me, she hurried over to my side and asked me "What do you think of my dress?" then she spun around a couple times, showing me the whole dress.

"I think it looks very nice on you." I said to Anna. "I can't wait to dance with you."

"Well, we don't have long to wait." Anna said to me as she sat beside me. "I think it will only be another half hour before the dance begins. My father says that the competition between Anna and I won't be announced like some kind of royal affair. We shall just dance together and then after that dance you shall dance with Katrina." Anna looked over to the door that she had entered through and saw Katrina coming in.

Katrina hurried over to us with her pink silk dress hanging just below her knees. Covering her from her feet to somewhere above her knees was a pair of light blue shoes with the top of them reaching above the hem of her dress. Just like on Anna's dress, Katrina's had lace on the hems of her sleeves, which were shorter than Anna's and reaching about halfway up her forearm, and there was lace on her neckline as well. Covering her hands was a pair of white silk gloves that reached up and past the hem of her sleeve. Unlike Anna's, Katrina's also had lace on the bottom of the dress.

"You look beautiful Katrina." I said to the red-head as she approached.

"Thank you, Josh." Katrina said with a slight blush. "You look very handsome." Katrina then turned to Anna and said "Are you ready to lose?"

Anna shook her head and said to her twin "No, but I am ready to win. Once the dance is over, be sure to tell me what the taste of defeat is like. With how absolutely awesome I am, I haven't ever tasted it so you will have to describe it to me."

Katrina stuck her tongue out at Anna and then Anna did the same. I chuckled a little and then I said to them "What if neither of the dresses is better than the other?"

The girls looked over to me and then at themselves. After several seconds of silence Katrina said to me "I guess we would then call a truce." Anna nodded in agreement.

"Sounds like a plan." I said with a smile. "So how much longer is it until the dance starts?"

Katrina looked up in thought and then she said "Maybe about half an hour?"

"Still?" I asked with surprise.

"What do you mean still?" Katrina asked me.

"Like forever ago Anna said to me that it would still be another half hour." I said to Katrina. "This is taking forever. Things need to speed up around here."

"I agree. Things are going by far to slowly." Anna said.

"What should we do to make time pass more quickly?" I asked the twins.

We thought for a few seconds and then Anna suggested "How about we play with some magic?"

There was a few things that were wrong about that, for example magic is a dangerous tool and not a toy, but it sounded to fun to pass up.

"That sounds like a lot of fun." I said to Anna. "As long as we don't do anything dangerous I completely agree."

"Same here." Anna said to us.

"Awesome, so what should we do?" I asked the girls.

We thought for a few seconds and then Katrina suggested "How about we fly around?"

Anna shook her head and said "That takes way to much energy."

"How about we make little figures out of the floor and then control them and move them around?" I suggested.

"How would we do that?" Anna asked me.

"Watch." I said to her. I knelt down on the wooden floor and held my right hand out and over the floor with the palm facing down. I muttered an incantation and then the wood of the floor started to flow up and touch my palm. Then I shaped the wood with my mind into the form of a man.

Then, I linked my mind with the wooden man and moved him around using my magic. Anna clapped as I walked the man around. Anna and Katrina knelt beside me and then Anna asked me what words I had used to create the man.

I told her that it was the word for wood and after about a minute all three of us had a figure walking around in front of us. After a couple of minutes we started to make the figures attack each other. When Anna and Katrina started to team up and fight against me, I created a second figure, this time a dragon large enough for my first figure to ride.

Anna gasped as she saw the dragon rise from the floor. Then she clapped as I used another incantation to make the dragon and its rider fly through the air.

Then, I channeled some magic energy into the human figure and focused it into his right hand. A gedwey ignasia started to glow on the palm of the tiny hand.

Then I made the figure pull back his right hand and then throw a tiny ball of energy at the other two figures. The ball exploded in a flash of blue smoke and when the smoke died down it showed the two figures shattered and lying on the ground. The only solid piece left was a hand off of Katrina's figure.

I landed my rider and dragon and then I made them melt back into the floor. As the figures turned back into sections of the floor I heard applause and looked up to see that it was Anna and Katrina as well as a small crowd of dancers that had watched our small battle.

Once the applause died down a bombardment of questions started. One of the main questions that was asked was where did we learn how to do that. After a brief explanation about how we were riders, Anna and Katrina showed the onlookers their gedwey ignasia. I kept mine hidden. I didn't want to scare the people around us.

After several more minutes a tall and narrow man in black robes with a red sash around his waist came up to us. When I looked closer at the sash I could see that he had the ancient language stitched into the fabric with white thread. The man also carried a cane with the head of a snake carved out of silver metal for the handle. The shaft was made of black wood and the tip of the cane was also carved out of silver metal. Just like on the sash I could see the ancient language carved into a spiral all along the shaft.

"Good evening, young ones." The man said to us in a reedy voice. "You have undoubtfully heard this question many times but I would like to ask you where you learned to do that."

"We learned on Vroengard." Katrina told the man.

"Ah, so the three of you are riders? May I see your gedwey ignasia? I have always wanted to see one in person." The man asked.

Katrina nodded and then removed her long gloves and showed the man her palm. The man peered closely at it and then he smiled. It was one of the creepiest smiles I had ever seen.

"Absolutely beautiful." The man said in a hushed tone. "This little mark is proof that you have touched a dragon hatchling and became its rider. Fascinating."

Just then, a now familiar male voice called out over the noise of the guests. "I would like to welcome you all to our celebration feast." Roran called out. It was amazing how powerful his voice was. "We are all here today to celebrate the home coming of my beloved daughter who has been gone for quite some time on a mission for the riders. So please, enjoy the music and food and have some fun while we all celebrate this wondrous night!"

The crowd applauded respectfully and then a band that I couldn't see started to play their instruments. Barely a second after the music started up a hand grabbed me by the shoulder and yanked me onto the dance floor; Anna was apparently very excited to start dancing.

We got into stance and then I took the first step of the dance and Anna followed. The dance for this music was full of turns and twists but somehow I managed to get it correctly.

Anna was an amazing dancer. She was very light on her feet and looked absolutely stunning as she twirled around.

After the second song was over and my time with Anna was complete I went over to where Katrina was waiting for me with a large crowd of guys around her. I had difficulty getting past all of the guys around her but eventually I made it to the front of the group.

Katrina saw me and smiled. She stood up from the chair she was sitting in and then all of the guys around me perked up, thinking that they were going to get to dance with her. Katrina walked straight to me and then I offered her my hand. Katrina grasped it and then accompanied by the groans of a lot of young men, I led Katrina onto the dance floor.

All of the time I had spent getting through the crowd of guys had taken so long that the band had played an entire song. Thankfully, they had another lilting dancing song and Katrina and I greatly enjoyed dancing together. She was just as good of a dancer as Anna, if not then better. Katrina was not only light on her feet, but she was also poised and graceful and instead of being stunning, she was absolutely beautiful.

Our second dance, was a slow one. I happily got closer to Katrina for the correct dance pose and then we started to dance. It was absolutely amazing. The lithe form of Katrina pressed so close to mine as we moved around each other; dancing with our souls as they mingled together. And, as the song came to an end, Katrina and I kissed passionately.

We were broken apart by Anna as she said "Alright you two, that is enough of that. This is a dance floor, not a bedroom." Anna smiled and then said "I think it is obvious who Josh chooses to be the better dancer in their dress. May I have the next dance, Josh? It will help to make my defeat less bitter."

I chuckled a little and then I nodded. Anna and I danced the next slow song and after that I danced with Katrina again. After a while that just became the rhythm. I would switch off dancing partners after every dance.

However, during one of my dances with Anna, another lilting dance, someone tapped on my shoulder and when I turned around I saw that it was a man with black hair that was slick from grease and his face looked unwashed. The man also had a terrible smell to him and I could barely keep myself from plugging my nose.

"You are dancing with my woman." The man said to me. "Step aside."

I looked back to Anna and saw that she had her eyes closed and was rubbing her head as if she had a headache.

"You're late again, William." Anna said to the man. "The dance started at least an hour ago. Where were you?"

"Mind your own business, Anna." William said to her. This man was starting to get on my nerves. "What I'd like to know is who is this boy that you're dancing with."

"Seriously?" I said to William. "You tell Anna to mind her own business and then you try to get into hers. That sure makes a lot of sense."

"Listen up, boy." William said to me. "I am the son of a very powerful family. My father is the general of the army. What makes you think that you can even measure up to me?"

I sighed. Guys like William really grated on my nerves. I looked William into the eyes and then pushed my mind against his. As expected, he had training in mind defenses. Just about all members of a powerful family did. But, William had some of the weakest defenses that I had ever seen and I broke through them easily.

William's eyes went wide as he realized that I had broken into his mind. Before he could call out for help I forced his body to freeze up, making it so he couldn't do so much as utter a single sound.

"Listen up, William. This is a lesson that you are in desperate need of learning." I said to the man. "But first, lets go somewhere a bit more private." I then controlled his body like I had done with the figurine earlier. I forced him to walk in front of me and then Anna followed me and Katrina followed Anna.

I walked us over and out of the ballroom and then I eventually found us a sitting room with nobody in it. After Katrina had entered, I locked the door behind that way nobody could barge in on us. I then cast a couple spells making it so that nobody could hear what we were saying and then the second one was to release my hold over William.

As soon as he was capable of moving he scuttled over to the furthest corner from me. I walked over to him and then knelt in front of the man while he cowered.

"William, you need to learn several lessons. If you don't, then you will forever be hated among everybody that you know." William looked at me with anger.

"I am not hated!" William roared at me. "You need to learn some respect when talking to somebody of higher office than yourself."

I literally slapped William. The man looked dazed after the hit.

"No William, you are the one who needs to learn respect." I said to him. "I am of higher office than you. I am only slightly lower than your father. William, I am a dragon rider and I could have you imprisoned for what you have said to me."

_No you can't._ Katrina said to me from within my mind. _You are still only a student. You barely have any authority._

_I know._ I said to Katrina. _But he doesn't and I can use that to my advantage._

_Oh, I get it now. I'll tell Anna what you're planning._

"William, you are disrespectful. Not only to people of higher office but also to people of lower office." I said to him. "You must learn respect and manners if you ever want to be liked. And, it is possible that if you do that then people will actually want to be around you, despite your smell."

"That is another thing you need to learn." I said to the man. "You must learn how to bathe. I can smell your horrible stench from clear across the room; plus I can see the grease in your hair."

William tried to punch me but after I muttered a quick word his hand froze mid-air. "Fight me like a man you spineless weasel and stop using your damned magic." William said to me through gritted teeth as he cheeks flushed with anger.

"Only if you agree to do as I have told you." I said to William. "Bathe more than once a month and learn respect. Those are the consequences should you fail our fight. And, if you fail to learn the lessons then you shall be banished from not only your home, but also all of Alagaesia. You will have to hide within the forests and mountains in order to survive, living off of moss and mushrooms."

William cowered as he heard my threat. "Remember William, I am a rider. I am stronger than you, faster than you, smarter than you and I am also trained to kill. Choose wisely; you can either lose against me in a fight and possibly be banished or you can start learning your lessons right now. The choice is yours."

William looked up at me and as I looked down upon him I saw something inside him break. The man hung his head and said "I submit. You are the better man."

"That was never the argument." I said to William. "Acknowledge me as the superior, and do so with respect, and then go and take a damn bath. Your stench is starting to burn my nose."

William continued to look down at the ground.

"Look up at me, William, and do as I have commanded." I said to the man.

He looked up to me and said "You are the superior, Rider. I shall learn respect."

"And?" I asked him.

"And I shall learn to bathe more often." William said to me.

I nodded and said "Good, now get going and take a bath you filthy little man."

William nodded and then scurried over to the door, unlocked it and then fled down the corridor in the direction of the bathing rooms.

I heard a cheer come from Anna. I looked over to her and she appeared to be one of the happiest people in the world.

"Thank you so much for doing that, Josh." Anna said to me. "Thank you so much for putting him in his place."

"You're welcome, Anna." I said to her. "It was a pleasure. So, what do you two say to us going back to the dancing and having some more fun?"

Both Katrina and Anna happily agreed. I led the way back to the ballroom with a beautiful woman grasping each of my hands and with a wide smile on all of our faces.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review and have a nice day.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry about not posting this last week. I'm having some troubles with staying into this story. I feel as if there is only like, five people reading this story. Well, to whoever is reading this I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

Now that the dance was over, we were able to go home. But Katrina wanted to stay an extra day to see if her brother would show up. When it started getting late and there was no sign of him Katrina finally said that we could leave.

Katrina and I hopped up onto the backs of the dragons that had carried us here and then they flew to the coast that faced Vroengard. With how late it was, we decided to just stay there for the night and once again Katrina snuggled up to me and we fell asleep.

In the morning we were back on our way to Vroengard. After spending almost half of the day in the saddle we were relieved to see that Vroengard was sitting on the horizon. The dragons were excited too and sped up. We reached Vroengard several hours after lunch.

As the dragons landed on the landing platform a welcoming party was gathered around. Before Katrina and I went to our friends, we thanked the riders and dragons for bringing us home. After we did that, we hurried over to the group and we were given countless hugs and the dragons gathered around roared and blew fire into the air.

A once small figure managed to push her way through the crowd and finally reached her rider. Sencil, the once small dragon was now above waist high and her black horns and claws were gleaming. The dragon tackled Katrina to the ground and then began to nuzzle her while she shed large tears from her closed eyes.

Katrina hugged her dragon and whispered to her in the ancient language.

I looked around for Blugun and saw a speck of blue in the sky that was rapidly approaching. Behind it was a speck of purple. The two dragons reached us after less than a minute and when they touched down Blugun did the same to me that Sencil had done for Katrina. I hugged his large blue head and told him how badly I had missed him. Amethi came over to us and began to nuzzle me as well. I included her in our hug and then we all joined minds. The entire time we had been separated I had felt as if a part of me had been missing but now that our minds were once more connected I felt complete.

I heard something to my right shuffling around and so I looked over to see that Katrina was mounting Sencil for the first time and they were preparing for their first flight together. I quickly wormed my way out from beneath Blugun and then I jumped up and onto his back.

_Are you ready to fly? _I asked Blugun.

_Whenever you're ready._ Blugun said to me.

"_Awesome, lets go!" _ I shouted with both my mind and my voice. Blugun brought his large wings down and shot off of the ground and soared into the sky. I looked down and saw that Sencil and Katrina were hovering several feet above the ground. Amethi helped out her daughter by pushing her higher into the air with her snout. Once Amethi was sure that Sencil knew how to fly with her rider, Amethi took off sending a large gust of air shooting at the ground which then bounced off and hit Sencil as she was flapping her wings down. The blast of air caused the young dragon to shoot up high into the sky.

Sencil and Katrina then soared through the air, the flaps of Sencil getting stronger with each that passed.

I turned back to Blugun and focused on him and how he flew, how he reveled in the fact that he was once again flying with his rider. Blugun did all he could to make the flight as fun as he could possibly do. He did flips, spirals and dives which all left me breathless and excited. Blugun was losing energy and so he landed on the ground and Amethi landed next to him.

_Would you like to ride me?_ Amethi asked me. I looked over to Blugun and he nodded that he was okay with me riding another dragon and then I hurried over to the purple dragon and hopped up and onto the dragon, then she took flight. We flew around for a while and then we touched down on the landing platform where Blugun was waiting for us with everybody else.

The group moved to the eating hall and then we all ate while we talked of events passed. When we were all done eating we went our separate ways and before I could follow Manny and Claire as well as our dragons back to our building a hand gripped my shoulder. I turned to see that it was Eragon. Beside him stood Katrina.

"I'm sorry to pull you away from your friends but we need to talk." Eragon said to me. Then he looked over at Katrina and said "All three of us." Then without another word he walked outside and Katrina and I hurried to catch up.

Eragon led us to his study and then Katrina and I sat in the two chairs that were in front of Eragon's desk. Eragon then sat in the chair behind the desk and after a wave of his hand two riders, one a dwarf the other an elf, entered the room with a large roll of parchment under their arm as well as a bottle of ink and a couple quills in the other hand.

They set their stuff up on the corners of the desk and then dipped their quills in the ink and held the quills over the ink-jar while they looked to Eragon, most likely waiting for him to start talking so that they could start writing.

"Josh and Katrina, you two have been through much and I hate that I must ask you to do this." Eragon said to us after a sigh. The other riders wrote quickly over the parchment as Eragon spoke. "I must ask you to tell us of what happed after you were captured. My friends here will help us by writing down everything we say that way we can look over the story again later. So please, begin with after you realized that you were poisoned."

Katrina and I looked over to each other and then we mentally asked each other who should speak first. We decided that it was going to be Katrina that was going to speak.

Katrina took a deep breath and collected her thoughts then she began to explain our tale. "After you had connected with my mind and said something about my mind feeling strange, I immediately checked the drink for poison. Once I found out that there was some I explained to Josh what had happened. While I was explaining I just kind of like froze up and everything went dark."

Now it was my turn to start explaining. "After Katrina froze up and started to fall I hurried over to her and caught her before she hit the ground and then I started to freeze up as well. Just before everything went blank for me I felt a group of people closing in on us. After that everything is blank until I woke up in the pavilion."

I then looked over to Katrina and nodded. She nodded back and then she said to Eragon "I managed to wake up as they were taking us into the building. I had looked around and saw that there was doors all around me and that there were five men taking Josh and I somewhere into the pavilion. Two of the men were carrying Josh between them, the other two were carrying me. The last guy was between Josh and I and he was carrying all of our stuff."

"As soon as I saw the perfect time to escape I broke free of their hold on me and then I kicked the man that was holding our stuff in the back of the knees. Sadly, all he dropped was Josh's ring. I grabbed it and then ran through the nearest door." Katrina said to us. "The door led to the kitchens of the building. I then ran through another door and saw that I was in some kind of pantry. It was full of food and had a couple of door leading out of it."

"I was able to hear the men chasing after me so I hurried through the nearest door and found myself in another kitchen." Katrina told us. "I just kept running through doors until I eventually reached the servant's quarters. I remembered about something I had read in a scroll a while back and then I went over to one of the windows and opened it as wide as it would go and then I ran over to a bed that was in the corner and hid underneath it. Just before the men ran into the room I remembered about an invisibility spell so I quickly used it."

"The men ran into the room and saw the window open and thought that I had jumped through the window so one of them jumped out of the window and the other stayed behind and looked underneath a few of the beds then he followed the other man." Katrina said to us. "I waited underneath the bed for a few minutes until I decided to come out. But, as soon as I did I heard people coming my way so I hurried back underneath the bed. The people that were coming in were the servants. They were coming in so that they could change into their good looking work clothes for the large banquet they were having that night."

"None of the servants knew the reason for the sudden banquet but I did learn about a few rumors about the top people in the Dark Riders. None had anything to do with any kind of battling. They all consisted about how some of them had bastard children with some of the servants." Katrina told us. "Shortly after they came in I ran out of energy for my spell so I was then visible so I worked my way back into the corner to make sure nobody saw me."

"After the servants were all gone I came out from underneath the bed and before I could go back underneath one of the servants came back into the room. When she saw me she came over to me and asked me if I was new there. I told her yes and then she asked me where my uniform was. I told her that I hadn't been given one so she led me over to her bed, the one right next to where I had been hiding and opened the small chest that was at the foot of the bed."

"The girl opened it and then she pulled out one of her spare uniforms and then she handed it to me. She told me to hurry and get dressed or else we would be late. So I quickly put on the uniform and then she showed me the way to the kitchens. She told me that they were always in need of a dishwasher so she told me to stay in front of the sinks and be ready to start washing." Katrina said to us. "So, I did and while she was walking away I changed my face both in reality and in her memory that way I could remain hidden."

"I stayed undercover as a servant for at least two months while Josh continued to sleep. I'm guessing that they kept giving him something to make him continue to sleep." Katrina told us. "I waited until I was able to contact him until we broke out of there. Thankfully as a servant I had to walk all over the place so it was easy for me to memorize the way. I also managed to get into a room that had a map of Alagaesia in it. On the map was the location of the pavilion as well as a couple of other headquarters of the Dark Riders."

"When I was finally able to connect to Josh's mind, I directed him towards me and then we broke out of there and flew to the city you found us in where we went undercover as a couple of servants at an inn." Katrina told them. "After about three weeks you guys found us and then we were brought to Carvahall and then to here."

Eragon nodded and then he asked the two scribes "Did you get all of that?" the two riders held up their parchment for Eragon to inspect and then he nodded again. "Good. You may leave." The two riders nodded and then they gathered their stuff, bowed to Eragon, and then they left the room.

"You two have been through much in the past months and I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot about the mission I wanted you two to go on." Eragon told us. I actually had forgotten about it. I looked over to Katrina and saw the surprised look on her face. She had forgotten about it as well.

"Now that Sencil is large enough to ride, I would like for you two to leave as soon as Sencil is a bit stronger. Strong enough to fly with Katrina for at least three hours without a break." Eragon said to us. "Until then, return to your classes and learn. I want you to grow stronger as well. Farewell."

Katrina and I stood and then bowed to Eragon and left.

We had the rest of the day off and then the next day we went to our first class.

"Ah, it is very good to see you two again." Samson said to Katrina and I as we. After all the time I had spent without wearing my armor, I had grown weak. The armor felt heavy on me as I walked towards our fighting instructor.

"It is good to see you as well." I said to Samson once I was closer.

Samson smiled down at all four of us and then he went over to the table that usually held the bows and arrows and came back holding two large items wrapped in cloth. "These are for you." He said as he handed Katrina and I each of the packages.

I unwrapped the cloth to reveal a sword. I quickly took the rest of the cloth off and saw that the sword was almost exactly like the one I had previously wielded. The only difference was that the gem in the hilt was no longer an onyx, but a dark sapphire.

I looked over to Katrina and saw that her new sword was exactly the same as her old one.

"These are to replace the ones you lost." Samson said to us. "It has been quite some time since the last time I was a blade smith so I hope you enjoy them."

"You were a blade smith?" Claire asked Samson surprised.

The large man nodded and said "When I was a kid I was a blade smith apprentice. Then my dragon hatched for me and my master quickly taught me how to forge a sword before I had to come here to Vroengard to advance my rider training."

"I didn't think I would remember all the stuff that my old master had taught me but I managed it." Samson said with a large smile. "As soon as I walked into Rhunon's forge it all came back to me. All the old lessons I had been taught, all the mistakes I had made, the patience of Master as he corrected my mistakes and taught me the correct way. Those were some great times."

"Will you please teach me how to be a blade smith?" Claire asked Samson.

Samson smiled at her and then he said "I'm sorry, but it is not my place to teach you the art of the forge. That is the job of Rhunon. She shall teach you how to forge when your time here is almost done. Did Rhunon not tell you this when you were studying enchantments?"

"Yeah," Claire said to Samson. "But that is like forever away. I want to learn now not later."

Samson chuckled a little and then he said "Don't worry. That day may come sooner than you think."

After that, Samson decided that we needed some basic exercise before we could continue our sword training. First, we did laps around a track the Samson set up and then we did push-ups and then sit ups. After that, we did more laps but this time with weights strapped to our wrists and ankles. By the time it was time for class to finish, Katrina and I had burning muscles and clothes soaked in sweat.

We walked to our rooms before lunch and quickly washed and dressed and then we went to lunch.

Afterwards we went to our magic class where Serana was waiting in her seat. We all sat down as well and then Serana said to Katrina and I "It is good to see you two again."

"It is good to see you as well, Serena-Elda." I said to Serena.

"It is truly great to see you once more." Katrina said to our teacher.

"You two have quite a bit of catching up to do." Serena said as she gestured to the table which had at least six thick scrolls on it.

"Are those for us?" I asked Serena.

The woman nodded and then she said "This set is for you, Josh. I have Katrina's in my bag." She said as she patted her large bag she always carried.

My jaw dropped. "We have six scrolls each?" I asked her.

Serena nodded and then a smile broke through her normally stern face and then she started giggling. Then her giggling turned into pure laughter. Katrina and I looked at each other in confusion and then over to Manny and Claire and we saw that they were having troubles holding back their own laughter.

Serena finally pulled herself back together and then she told Katrina and I "I'm sorry about that." Then she waved her hands over the scrolls and four of them disappeared. "I was just making a joke." Serena said with a smile.

Now that I understood what was going on, I laughed as well. "That was pretty good. I was so scared that I had to do so much work."

"Please don't ever do that again." Katrina said with a smile and a little laugh.

Serena laughed a little more and then she said "I swear I will not trick you again." Then she picked up the scrolls and tossed one to each of us. "The scroll has all of the ancient language that you missed while you were gone. They also each have two stories in them. I think you will like the second one."

"Well, time to start class." Serena said to us. "You two need to rebuild your magic energy so I want all four of you to do some basic practices that will make you stronger."

For the rest of the class we lifted rocks, moved rocks around, pushed rocks against a magic barrier that Serena set up.

After class, Katrina and I were mentally exhausted. We grabbed our scrolls and then we went to our building and after taking some energy from my ring, we lifted ourselves up to the roof. I'm not really sure what we had talked about while we were up there. The only things I was sure of was Katrina's hand which sat in my own and also that I was fucking tired.

I'm pretty sure that I dozed off for a little bit because when I opened my eyes it was just Katrina and I on the roof. Once again, Katrina had fallen asleep pressed against me. This time she was sitting in my lap. She had actually gotten out of her chair and climbed into mine with me. I wrapped my arms around her and then I got comfortable in my chair and fell back asleep.

On the roof top closest to us Manny and Claire exchanged several gold coins while Manny said "I told you so."

"Shut up Manny. So what you were right about them being a couple. I bet that I will win the rest of our bets." Claire said to the young elf.

"I think you have a betting problem." Manny said to the young human. Then he held out his hand and said "You're on." Then they shook hands and yet another bet was sealed.

Half an hour later I woke up again and saw that Katrina was still sleeping. I gazed up at the sky and did a quick calculation using the position of the sun and I saw that Katrina and I still had about twenty minutes until dinner was no longer being served.

I shook Katrina awake and she groggily opened her eyes with a yawn. "What?" Katrina asked me. She rubbed her eyes and then she said "I was having a good dream."

"Sorry to wake you." I said before kissing her lightly. "We only have about twenty minutes until there will not be any more dinner so I suggest we get moving."

"Now that you brought up food I'm starving." Katrina said to me as she pressed a hand to her stomach.

"You're not starving." I said to her. "You're just hungry. Lets get going." Katrina nodded and then she got off of my lap and we jumped off of the roof and used magic to catch ourselves. We then ran to the eating hall.

When we went in, we saw that there were only about four other riders in the eating hall. When Katrina and I got to the table with all the food on it, we were very happy to see that there was still a pretty good amount of food left.

We heaped our plates high and then we started to walk over to a table but on the way there, I heard the sound of crying and looked over to see that a girl maybe a year younger than me was sitting alone and her shoulders were shaking slightly.

I went over to her and set my plate down next to her and then I sat down next to her. The girl looked slightly frightened of me and her eyes wouldn't leave my draconian arm.

"What's the matter?" I asked her.

The girl quickly wiped her eyes and she said to me "Nothing is the matter."

"Then why were you crying?" I asked her.

The girl stammered for a few seconds then she shut her mouth and didn't say anything. Another tear trickled down her cheek and I wiped it away with my normal arm that way I didn't frighten her. I looked over to Katrina and saw her standing beside me. I looked into her eyes and then I sent her a mental message.

_Will you please help me to help her? _I asked her.

Katrina nodded and then she set her plate down next to the girl and then she sat down as well.

"Will you tell me what's wrong?" Katrina asked her. "Please, just girl to girl." Katrina looked up to me and I understood what she meant. I stood up and went a few paces away. The girl started to quietly talk to Katrina and while she was talking the girl burst into tears. I looked around and found some napkins so I grabbed them and brought them over to the girl. She thanked me and then I took several steps back again.

The girl continued to talk for the next couple minutes and at the end Katrina hugged the girl and said a few words to her. Then Katrina looked over to me and I went over to see what was happening.

"Do you mind if I tell me friend what happened?" Katrina asked the girl. The girl looked at me with what could have been fear. "I know he's a guy and that he might not understand but he is very smart and if her doesn't understand then he will try his hardest to understand."

The girl looked at me for a few more seconds and then she nodded. "I'll tell him." She said to us.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" I asked the girl.

She nodded again and then I sat down next to her. "My name is Josh. What's yours?"

"Reimal." The girl said to me.

"That is a very nice name." I said to her. "You may begin whenever you're ready."

Reimal nodded and then she took a deep breath and said "It all started when I when to the annual hatching ceremony. My parents had never liked riders so they weren't entirely happy when my dragon hatched for me." Reimal sighed. "After I was done with my training back home, my master told me that I was ready for Vroengard but before I left to finish my training I would have to talk to my parents."

"I did as he told me and talked to my parents." Reimal said. "They screamed at me and my mother was so furious that she actually slapped me." Reimal told us as she held her right cheek. "I never understood why my parents hated the riders and they would never try to explain it to me. They refused to let me go to Vroengard. After that I went and talked to my boyfriend about it and he talked me into disobeying my mother and father and so that night I got my stuff together while everybody was sleeping and then my dragon and I flew away."

Before Reimal began to talk again a tear started to fall down her cheek so I grabbed a napkin and handed it to her. "Thank you." Reimal said to me before wiping away the fluid. "It didn't take us long before we got here and a couple days afterward I received a message from my parents. It said that I was in serious trouble for disobeying them and that when they went searching for me they found my boyfriend in an alley with his tongue in the mouth of some blond girl. After the letter talked about him cheating on me my parents had actually written down ha ha ha. They were laughing at me." Reimal said as a sob escaped her.

"At the end of the letter it said that I wasn't worth the time and hassle so they were going to disown me as soon as they could." Reimal couldn't hold back her tears anymore and they started to fall. I embraced the weeping girl and she shed her tears on my tunic.

I looked up at Katrina and saw that she was crying as well. I then looked down to Reimal and said to her "Would you like for me to speak to Eragon about this? He might be able to talk your parents into changing their minds."

Reimal turned her tear streaked face towards me and asked me "Can you really speak to Eragon?" after I nodded she asked me "Why would the leaders of the riders bother to listen to a student?"

I smiled a little and said "Because I'm special." Then I held up my right arm. "If he doesn't listen to me then maybe he will listen to someone of his own blood-line." Then I gestured to Katrina.

Reimal looked at the two of us amazed. Then she lowered her head against my chest again but this time she quietly cried. Possibly from happiness. When she raised her head from my chest she had a smile on her face. "Thank you, Josh." Then she turned to Katrina and told her thank you as well.

Then Reimal stood up and tossed her remaining food in the trash and then she left the hall.

Katrina moved closer to me and then we both took a bite of our food. Then we used a spell and heated up our food. Then we enjoyed the rest of our meal. Once that was done, we went out in search of Eragon.

We first looked in his study but he wasn't there we went and looked in the various other places we could think of, including the conference room. We eventually found the captain of one of the armies walking the halls and we asked him about the location of Eragon.

"He is speaking with some very important men and women. He will be busy for some time." The tall Kull told us. "There are several elves and dwarves among the group he is speaking with and they like to take their time. It may be a couple days before we are capable of speaking with him."

"Shit." I muttered.

"Why did you need to speak with him?" the Kull asked us.

"One of our friends was having some troubles with her family and we wondered if Eragon could speak with her family to see if he could get it resolved." Katrina told the captain.

He brought his large gray hand up and scratched his chin. After a couple seconds of thought, he said to us "I shall pass on your message as soon as I see Eragon. I shall tell him that you two had something personal to discuss. He will most likely call you into his study to talk so I suggest you bring the one who is having troubles."

"Thank you, Sir." I said to the Kull. The large creature nodded at me and then he walked off down the hallway.

"Well, now that that is resolved I think that it's time for bed." Katrina said to me. Then she kissed me and said "Good night." I kissed her back and then I also bid her good night. Then we went our separate ways. Katrina to her room and me to mine.

After I reached my room I took my boots off and then I undressed and redressed into my sleeping clothes. Instead of sleeping in my bed, I slept with Blugun in his.

When I woke up I was surprised to see that Katrina wasn't in the room. I walked over to my alarm and shut it off and then I rewound it and started to get dressed. Once I was done I went to breakfast by riding on Blugun's back. After Blugun dropped me off and went to his own cave to eat I went into the eating hall and looked around for where everybody else was. I found them in the usual spot. I quickly went and got some food and then I went over to my friends.

I was surprised but delighted to see that Reimal was sitting with us. While we ate we talked and once we were done we left the building. Manny and Claire went back to the building and Katrina went to her room to talk to her sister through her mirror which left me and Reimal alone.

I offered to walk her to her room and she accepted. While we walked, I asked her "Why didn't you eat with your own team?"

Reimal looked up into the clear sky and said to me "They don't like me all that much. They're both stuck up bitches."

I laughed a little and said to her "Well even though your team members aren't your friends, just remember that my team will always be your friend."

Reimal looked up to me and said "Thank you." We made small talk the rest of the way to her building. It was at least a seven minute walk away from mine. When we got there, we saw smoke coming from the roof.

"Shit." Reimal said before using magic to carry herself up to the top. Worried that something was on fire, I went as well.

There was no fire but there were two girls about a year older than me sitting up there smoking cigars. Reimal was talking to them about her bad that they were for their lungs but the girls just ignored her and continued to smoke.

As I stood and watched their fight, I sensed magic being used and looked in the direction of the feeling and saw that a large blob of water was rising above the building. I looked over to the smoking girls and saw that one of them was controlling it with her hand which was hidden from Reimal's view.

I quickly took control of the water, much to the girl's surprise and then I moved it from above Reimal to above the girls and then I released it. Before any of the girls could catch the water it fell onto them, putting out their cigars and drenching them. A small spell kept both Reimal and I dry.

The smokers looked around for the person who had used their spell against them and they eventually found me.

"Who are you?" the blond smoker asked me.

"My name is Josh and you should really listen to Reimal." I told the girl. "Doesn't just damage the lungs, it can also kill you. Smoking is incredibly deadly."

"I'll show you deadly!" the brunette smoker yelled before screaming out brisingr and then launching a torrent of flames at me. My wards deflected the fire and sent it back at the girl, making her scream in fear before she realized that her own wards prevented her from getting hit with the fire as well.

While the girl was scared I broke into her mind and forced her to submit. The other girl also tried to attack me and again my wards bounced her attack back at her. She was smarter than her friend and didn't flinch because she knew about her wards. Her attack bounced off of the wards and flew into the air.

As the girl was preparing another spell Reimal came up to her and punched her in the face, knocking her off of her feet. While she was distracted I took control of her mind as well. I made both of the girls sleep and they both collapsed. I released their minds and turned towards Reimal. "Nice punch." I said to her.

"Thanks." Reimal said as she held her hand. I went over to her and inspected her hand using a spell.

"You punched that girl so hard you dislocated one of your fingers." I said to her. "This will hurt for a second." I said before I used my mind to push the finger back into place. Reimal gave a short cry of pain and then she flexed the once dislocated finger.

"Thanks." Reimal said to me.

"You're welcome." I said to her. Then I looked at the two unconscious girls and then I used a spell and lifted their sleeping forms high into the air. "Well, we must now report these two to the Elder Riders. They have broken several of the rules here and must now be punished. Will you please some with me?" I asked Reimal. "You are a witness to their actions and it would help if you went against them."

Reimal nodded and then we went to the main building and to the room where we could report the girls. There was an Elder Rider in the room and she was shocked to say the least to see two girls float into the room and then have me and Reimal walk in after the girls.

"What happened?" the elder demanded.

"These two attacked me and then I retaliated and took over their minds. I then put them to sleep. They shall awaken in a couple of hours." I said to the woman. The elder looked the girls over and when she noticed the growing bruise on the blond girl she looked up at me.

"Did you strike this girl?" she asked me.

"I did." Reimal said to the woman. "She was getting ready to use another spell on Josh so I punched her and then Josh took over her mind."

The elder nodded and then she touched each girl on the forehead. After a few seconds her eyes went wide. The she looked to the door and several large men and a couple Urgals rushed into the room and grabbed the girls. I released my hold on them and then they took the girls away.

"Where are they taking them?" Reimal asked the woman.

Before she could answer I told Reimal "They were Dark Riders." Reimal gasped and then the Elder Rider narrowed her eyes at me. "The girls were here undercover as riders so that they could learn our secrets."

"How do you know this?" the Elder Rider asked me.

"While I was carrying the girls here I looked through their mind." I said to the woman.

"Who gave you the authority to go through people's minds?" the elder asked me.

"Nobody, but they gave me a bad feeling, especially the blond one. So just to be safe, I checked their minds." I said to the elder.

"Hm." The elder said before leaving the room.

Reimal approached me and asked me "Were those two really Dark Riders?"

I nodded and said to her "Yes, they were. When I was looking through their minds I saw the true intent to the water spell I redirected." I said to Reimal. "They were going to drown you with it and then they were going to throw your body into the lake and say you drowned while swimming."

"It's a pretty good thing that I walked you back to your room." I said to Reimal. She walked over to me and embraced me.

"Thank you, Josh." Then she started to cry.

I wrapped my arms around the weeping girl and said to her "You're welcome, Reimal."

**Please review and have a nice day.**


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